Friday Questions: On the eve of the FLOP26 genocide conference opening in Glasgow, many of you are asking how we can mobilize a population which has submitted to the narratives designed by Tavistock brainwashers to make people cynical and depressed. Two answers: First — not everyone is submitting, there is deep concern and anger about corruption, inflation, austerity, endless wars, etc. Find those not beaten down, and introduce them to the solutions developed by The LaRouche Organization. Second — use truth, irony, empathy and love to reach the minds and souls of those paralyzed by fear and impotence. The crash of the system is here, as more and more are realizing. Now is not the time to wallow, or look for a safe zone — sign up for the Nov. 13-4 Schiller Institute conference to find out more.
Today’s UN World Food Systems Summit was a 13-hour marathon of 215+ speakers (mostly pre-recorded,) and short videos, on the themes of making commitments to altering food and farm practices to be “nature-positive” (as if humanity is unnatural). Dozens of national representatives spoke, along with NGOs and foundations, e.g. Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All principal UN agency leaders spoke, from the World Health Organization to the Food and Agriculture Organization. There were some threatening statements, e.g. from Lord Goldsmith, the UK Minister for Pacific and the Environment, who said, “we must reconcile our lives and economics with the natural world,” and protect the Earth with “nature-based solutions.” He called for increasing forests, and reducing cropland.
David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) was outspoken that our task is to stop conflict and hunger. There were 4.7 million deaths over the past 18 months from COVID-19, but 16 million deaths from starvation, he said. “We’ve got the expertise. We’ve got the determination.” The question is, “What are we going to do?” He said that every day over this past year, the billionaire echelon increased their wealth by $5.2 billion, and 24,000 people died of starvation per day. This means the billionaires increased their wealth $216 million per hour, and 1,000 people per hour died. He began by estimated that there is $400 trillion of wealth in the world, and only a few billion are needed to save all the lives now in danger. Twice he said, “Shame on us.”
He did NOT speak about “resilience…inclusivity…women’s empowerment…indigenous rights…changing dietary consumption habits…nature enhancement….biodiversity” He said that we must produce and deliver the food, and stop the conflicts. He issued a call to action. That’s how to use the summit, he stressed. “Love our neighbor as an equal….A child in Niger is equal to a child in New York.” Save these lives. “Children can’t eat empty promises. It’s up to us to make food and nutrition a reality.”
Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Piano trio, variations on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu” theme
“Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu” (I am Kakadu the tailor) was the name of a popular tune from Wenzel Muller’s opera “Die Schwestern von Prag (The Sisters from Prague). Beethoven composed these variations during his early years in Vienna, then sent them to the publisher after the opera was revived in 1814, with the note, “one of my earlier compositions, though it is not among the reprehensible ones”.
Enjoy this delightful performance by the ATOS Trio. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]
As the LaRouche movement has warned for years, energy price hikes are not based on lack of product, but manipulation of markets by traders, working with geopoliticians in government and financial institutions — such as the infamous Henry Kissinger, coordinator of the 1973 Great Oil Hoax, which began the era of the petro-dollar. The Glasgow COP26 summit is not about stopping “global warming”, but convincing you to accept the idea that the era of plenty is over, and you should get used to shortages, high prices, unavailability of products, and a lower standard of living and early death. Join with us to end the fraud of the idea of “limits to growth”. Read the Schiller Institute/CLINTELL “Wake-Up Call”, CLINTEL/Schiller Institute—A Wake-Up Call: The Danger for Mankind Is Not the Climate, but Toleration of a Devious Policy that Uses Climate To Destroy Us!
May 4, 2021 (EIRNS)–“Diplomacy is being replaced by sanctions,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned in an interview with RT Television yesterday, and this is “undermining mutual trust and darkening the prospects for normalizing relations” between Russia and the collective West.
“The vicious practice of imposing unilateral political and economic restrictions, especially the extraterritorial application of such measures, is an infringement on the sovereignty of states and interference in their internal affairs aimed at keeping, at any cost, their [imposers’–ed.] dominant position in the global economy and international politics, which they are gradually losing,” she charged.
She discussed various measures which Russia is taking to defend itself: consolidating its national financial system, searching for new international partners, diversifying foreign economic ties while developing advanced, competitive domestic industries which lay the basis for substituting domestic products for what was previously imported. New legal mechanisms are being worked on, and legislation “providing for measures to counter new potential unilateral steps by the United States and other countries” is being drafted.
RT asked several questions about ways Russia might protect itself from restrictions on its access to Western financial systems. Zakharova noted that cutting Russia off from the SWIFT system for international settlement of payments “is so far considered a hypothetical scenario.” That said, work is underway on reducing Russia’s dependence on the dollar, a discussion that has been underway for at least a decade, she noted. She referenced that the 2007-2008 crisis “called into doubt the sustainability of the world currency system based on the supremacy of one national monetary unit.”
Zakharova made clear that such discussions are not taking place just in Russia, as finding ways to secure “the independence and sustainability of the financial system to external threat is increasingly becoming a priority for any state.” Russia will not be driven by the “hostile foreign policy” of others to shut out the outside world; it is discussing measures that can be taken with regional neighbors, the BRICS, and others.
Once again, Zakharova, as other high-ranking Russian officials have consistently been doing, proposed that Western nations change course, and come to the table to reach agreements which defend everyone’s interests: “We have repeatedly made it clear that we did not start this sanctions war, but we are ready, at any point, to do our part in order to end this pointless confrontation, in which there will not be and cannot be any winners…. We strongly support a broad international discussion of ways to counteract the illegitimate unilateral measures. We are confident that a systematic dialogue should help reduce the business community’s concerns regarding the uncertainty and instability in global affairs, which are provoked by the West’s one-sided and inconsistent policy.” The RT coverage can be found here.
The Foreign Ministry carries the transcript of the interview on its website.
The freezing of Afghanistan’s national funds held in the N.Y. Federal Reserve Bank, ordered by Treasury Secretary Yellen on August 15, is setting the stage for further chaos in that war-torn country. You don’t have to love the Taliban to demand the unfreezing of those funds — they belong to the sovereign nation of Afghanistan, and are needed to feed people, provide medicine, purchase fuel, etc. By withholding those funds, the U.S. and its allies are starving children, exactly as the British colonial administrators did to their colonies. Is this what the Biden administration intends, when it says the era of endless wars is over???
May 4, 2021 (EIRNS)--In its May 1 cover article, the Economist wrote with satisfaction about the dangerous strategic condition created with respect to Taiwan. The outgoing head of the Pacific Command, Adm. Phil Davidson, had told Congress in March that he worried about China attacking Taiwan as soon as 2027. The {Economist} notes the unique position of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which leads the world in the production of advanced semiconductor chips, with technologies and production processes years ahead of those of either the U.S. or China. The British rag also exults in recent changes from what had been the status quo of the ambiguous state of U.S. support for a one-China policy while in effect guaranteeing Taiwanese independence. With a growing independence movement in Taiwan, strengthened by reporting on Hong Kong, will China remain at bay?
“Nobody in America can really know what Mr. Xi intends today, let alone what he or his successor may want in the future…. Mr. Xi’s appetite for risk may sharpen, especially if he wants unification with Taiwan to crown his legacy.” To prevent this, the Economist calls for action: “America requires weapons to deter China from launching an amphibious invasion…. China must be discouraged from trying to change Taiwan’s status by force even as it is reassured that America will not support a dash for formal independence by Taiwan.” Rather than achieving an actual resolution of the dispute, through a true detente and discussion, the British magazine suggests an effort to “sustain ambiguity,” maintaining the state of conflict while acknowledging that “The risk of a superpower arms race is high.” The full article is here.
Police-State Measures Against Protesters with 'Wrong' Thoughts May 4, 2021 (EIRNS)--An Arkansas man photographed at a desk in Nancy Pelosi's office was taken into custody on Jan. 8, charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, and possession of a "deadly or dangerous weapon" (the retired firefighter's walking stick -- fitted with a stun gun but without batteries on Jan. 6). Federal prosecutors requested, and secured, an order from Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the D.C. district court, for the man to be taken to Washington D.C., where he has been incarcerated in solitary confinement pending his trial later this month. In another case, that of the "zip tie guy" and his mother, a D.C. appellate court denounced their pre-trial detention, leading to their release--pending trial--after more than two months in jail. As the kid-gloves approach towards Antifa protesters in Portland makes clear, this strict approach is not pursued against all protesters in the United States, but rather is trained on those who are to be exhibited as examples of the DVEs (domestic violent extremists) that supposedly pose a mortal threat to "American democracy." Just last Wednesday, April 28, a couple in Alaska were roused from their bedroom by armed FBI agents, who had broken the door to their home and inn. The agents handcuffed the pair, along with several houseguests, and interrogated them for hours about their participation in the Jan. 6 event at the Capitol. The couple had attended Trump's speech and walked to the Capitol, but had not entered it. Eventually the agents revealed that they believed the wife had stolen Nancy Pelosi's laptop. After ransacking their home and confiscating electronic equipment, the agents left. The same day, Rudy Giuliani's home was searched. In total, an enormous police and intelligence operation has led to the arrest of over 400 people for their participation in the Jan. 6 events. Are we really to believe that this same apparatus was unable to foresee the need for additional security at the Capitol that day?
The latest “Food Security” report on Afghanistan released yesterday by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) raises the alarm that Afghanistan is becoming the largest humanitarian crisis in the world—beyond even the horror of the famines in Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, and South Sudan. The facts, maps, and descriptions included in that report make clear that mass death has begun, and that the U.S.-led Western financial sanctions are playing a major role in this catastrophe. This is genocide.
The number of Afghanistan’s people suffering “acute food insecurity” has risen, even after this season’s harvest, from 14 million to 18.8 million people—47% of the nation’s population. That’s a 37% increase since the last assessment carried out by these agencies in April. The FAO and WFP now project that, come the November to March winter months, at least 22.8 million people—more than half (55%) of Afghanistan’s people—will be starving to death. Be clear: “acute food insecurity” is not chronic hunger; it is defined as “when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.”
“Economic decline” stemming from the imposition of international financial sanctions is identified right up front as a “key driver” of this catastrophe, along with conflict and drought. “In the wake of Afghanistan’s political transition and the consequent freezing of US$ 9.5 billion in national assets, the economy plummeted,” the report acknowledges. “The banking system suffered severe disruption, and the national currency lost 12.5 percent of value, leading to high unemployment and food prices.”
In large part because of the sanctions, “for the first time, urban residents are suffering from food insecurity at similar rates to rural communities…. Across cities, towns and villages, virtually no family can afford sufficient food, according to recent WFP surveys,” the World Food Program reported in a press release. “Rampant unemployment and a liquidity crisis are putting all major urban centers in danger of slipping into a Phase 4 emergency level of food insecurity, including formerly middle class populations,” the report finds.
“Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises—if not the worst—and food security has all but collapsed,” WFP executive director David Beasley warned in releasing this report. “This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance, and unless the economy can be resuscitated…. Hunger is rising and children are dying … the international community must come together to address this crisis, which is fast spinning out of control.”
The WFP press release cites one of the authors of the report, Jean-Martin Bauer, on how one million Afghan children, right now, are in danger of dying of hunger. Bauer asserted that “no one wants to see Afghan children die as a result of, you know, politics, essentially.”
Prove him right; join the Schiller Institute’s international campaign to end the financial strangulation of Afghanistan, and sign and circulate its “Call to Release the funds of the Afghan people.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Friday that ten US diplomats are being declared {persona non grata} and ordered out of Russia, as part of what he labeled a “tit-for-tat response” to President Biden’s actions on Thursday. He also matched the US by barring eight Americans from entering Russia: FBI Director Christopher Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former CIA Director James Woolsey. He indicated that further actions, if provoked, would include imposing “painful measures” on US businesses in Russia and expelling 100 of the 450 staff at the American embassy in Russia, to match the 350 Russians at their embassy in the US.
President Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, met with his Security Council today: “There was a conversation about measures in response to the US sanctions imposed on our country the day before.” Also, military construction was high on the agenda, and Putin informed the Council of his call with Biden.
Earlier, on Thursday, Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had made it clear that a response to Biden’s actions was “unavoidable” and that the American ambassador, John Sullivan, was summoned for “tough talks.” Also on Thursday, the State Duma’s Speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin described Biden’s measures as showing that the “whole arsenal of accusations has been exhausted, and the US is going in a circle… by imposing sanctions, they punish themselves. In the end, they will have to build relationships that they themselves have destroyed.” The First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Dmitry Novikov, told Izvestia that there was nothing surprising: “They say that they are ready to meet and contact, but only on topics that interest them, and in all other respects they will continue pressure. They call this a pragmatic approach.” Izvestia interviewed the president of the American University in Moscow, Eduard Lozansky, who suggested that, while the inconsistency of Biden’s actions this week casts doubt upon his sincerity, it could also be that advisers and party members have the bulk of control over Biden, making him twist and turn.
Tass’s coverage on Friday noted that Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin had noted weeks ago, that the US was planning on attacking Russian bonds, “a deliberate calculation to create a toxic atmosphere around Russian securities in order to reduce their investment potential”—and that Russia was preparing measures to counteract this escalation.