Orkanen Harvey var en menneskeskabt
katastrofe; Glass-Steagall og investering i
infrastruktur er hjælpemidlet.
LaRouchePAC Internationale Webcast,
8. september, 2017

Jeg vil gerne sige, at dette virkelig bør være alarmklokken, der ringer for at vække, ikke alene nationen til at respondere til denne umiddelbare katastrofe, men også til, at vi nu begynder at respondere til det intellektuelle lederskab, som hr. Lyndon LaRouche har demonstreret under hele sin karriere – i 40-50 år, eller mere. I dag er en meget passende dag for denne opfordring om, at tiden nu er inde til at lytte til Lyndon LaRouches vise ord, eftersom det i dag, den 8. september, er hans 95-års fødselsdag. Vi ønsker hr. LaRouche Tillykke med fødselsdagen! Men det er vores mission at tage denne opfordring til efterretning og træffe den beslutning, at det nu er tidspunktet for at respondere til denne historiens alarmklokke og tage de nødvendige skridt til at påbegynde et totalt og komplet paradigmeskifte i den måde, hvorpå vi går frem med nationalpolitik og international politik.

Vært Matthew Ogden: God aften. Det er den 8. september, 2017; jeg er Matthew Ogden, og dette er vores ugentlige fredags-webcast fra larouchepac.com. Med mig i studiet i dag har jeg Paul Gallagher, EIR’s økonomiredaktør; og via video har vi Benjamin Deniston fra LaRouche PAC-websiden og vores forskningsteam. Vi vil have en meget rig diskussion, tror jeg. Før vi kommer til det, vil jeg blot sige, at vi nu er to uger, mindre end to uger, inde i katastrofen med orkanen Harvey; og vi har udstedt en nøderklæring, som vi har diskuteret i de seneste par udsendelser, med titlen: »Ikke flere Houston-katastrofer! Lyndon LaRouche siger, hvad det er, der nu må ske!«

Jeg vil gerne sige, at dette virkelig bør være alarmklokken, der ringer for at vække, ikke alene nationen til at respondere til denne umiddelbare katastrofe, men også til, at vi nu begynder at respondere til det intellektuelle lederskab, som hr. Lyndon LaRouche har demonstreret under hele sin karriere – i 40-50 år, eller mere. I dag er en meget passende dag for denne opfordring om, at tiden nu er inde til at lytte til Lyndon LaRouches vise ord, eftersom det i dag, den 8. september, er hans 95-års fødselsdag. Vi ønsker hr. LaRouche Tillykke med fødselsdagen! Men det er vores mission at tage denne opfordring til efterretning og træffe den beslutning, at det nu er tidspunktet for at respondere til denne historiens alarmklokke og tage de nødvendige skridt til at påbegynde et totalt og komplet paradigmeskifte i den måde, hvorpå vi går frem med nationalpolitik og international politik.

Før jeg begynder, vil jeg gerne opfordre alle vore seere til – hvis I ikke allerede har, og LaRouchePAC har tweetet et link til det – at se den 8 minutter lange video, der blev produceret af New York Times. Den har titlen »Into the Deluge« (Ind i syndfloden), og er en kort dokumentar om den hærgen og ødelæggelse, som orkanen Harvey har forårsaget i Houston, Texas, og det omkringliggende område. Videoen fortæller historien om Kesha Rogers (medlem af LaRouche PAC Policy Committee) og hendes familie, og hendes far og stedmor, der mistede livet i oversvømmelserne efter Harvey. Videoen starter med et uforglemmeligt smukt soundtrack af Kesha selv, der synger en spiritual, »Walk With Me«, lagt hen over utrolige optagelser af de dramatiske ødelæggelser efter orkanen Harvey og oversvømmelserne. Den fortæller, som jeg sagde, historien om ikke alene hendes far og stedmor, men også andre ofre, andre overlevende og de første nødhjælpsfolk, der trådte til efter orkanen Harvey. Den slutter med et citat af Kesha Rogers, som jeg mener, bør være temaet for vores udsendelse her i aften. Jeg viser det på skærmen [Fig. 1]. Kesha siger,

»Det er denne form for tragedier, der får folk til at komme sammen. Der har været en utrolig respons fra hele nationen og hele verden. Men man har ikke tid til at sidde hjemme og græde. Jeg har en mission«, sagde hun. »Jeg har arbejde, der skal gøres; det har vi alle. Det er pointen.«

På skærmen kan I se citatet af Kesha, og det er også nævnt i videoen fra New York Times, der har titlen, »Into the Deluge«. Jeg opfordrer jer til at finde den online og se den. Vi har tweetet linket til videoen, og I kan finde det på vores twitter-feed.

Men, dette er netop pointen; at vi alle har arbejde, der skal gøres, og det er denne katastrofe, der skete i Houston – men også andre, der nu truer os, inkl. med stor sandsynlighed orkanen Irma, der nu stormer af sted med retning mod Florida. Brug dette som alarmklokken til den ’bratte opvågning’ for endelig at samle denne nation og til at påbegynde den form for presserende nødvendige, økonomiske handlinger, der kan sikre, at denne form for tragedier aldrig mere kan ske. Disse orkaner er muligvis nok naturfænomener, og det vil vi diskutere lidt senere med Ben Deniston. Men den katastrofale hærgen i deres kølvand bør aldrig få lov at forekomme. Og de er virkelig menneskeskabte katastrofer, fordi vi har forsømt at tage de nødvendige skridt, som vi på forhånd er vidende om, for at forebygge og beskytte os mod virkningerne af denne form for naturfænomener. Vi kan gøre disse ting, fordi vi er menneskelige, og fordi vi kan forstå og tøjle naturens kræfter, og faktisk ikke alene mildne de ødelæggende virkninger, men sætte disse naturkræfter til at arbejde for det gode; som det, hævet over enhver tvivl, blev demonstreret med Tennessee Valley Authority. Vi dækkede TVA sidste fredag og viste et kort uddrag af en video; men dette er et eksempel herpå. Vi kan som nation gøre dette, fordi vi har en Forfatning og et økonomisk system, der blev grundlagt af Alexander Hamilton med netop dette formål.

Som jeg nævnte, så udstedte vi en nøderklæring, »Ikke flere Houston-katastrofer! Lyndon LaRouche siger, hvad det er, der nu må ske!«, og den fremlægger et omgående firepunktsprogram: Genindfør Glass-Steagall, bryd Wall Street og dets magt op; skab nationale kreditinstitutioner baseret på FDR’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation og Hamiltons nationalbanker; investér kredit i ny infrastruktur med helt nye teknologier; og vedtag et forceret program for fusionskraft, der kan lade en stor udvidelse af NASA’s rumforskning blive drivkraften bag produktivitet og produktiv beskæftigelse. Selv om dette er en presserende nøderklæring, der blev udgivet for kun en uge siden, og vi vil gennemgå, hvad der er sket på denne front, siden denne erklæring blev udstedt, så er det ikke nyt. Lyndon LaRouche har krævet dette i mindst et årti, eller mere. Så før vi går over til Paul Gallagher og Ben Deniston, vil jeg gerne vise et kort, 3-minutters klip af Lyndon LaRouche selv, i kølvandet på en tidligere naturkatastrofe. Dette var et webcast, som han holdt i dagene umiddelbart efter orkanen Katrina, der ramte New Orleans. Dette er i august, 2005, og her kan I se præcis, hvad Lyndon LaRouche havde at sige dengang, som de nødvendige skridt, der måtte tages, og hvad der er, og ikke er, blevet gjort siden denne historiske storm i 2005. Lad mig afspille dette for jer:

Lyndon LaRouche (video):

»De fleste mennesker forstår ikke arten af situationen, fordi de ikke tænker ud fra standpunktet om, hvad en præsident for USA bør tænke på et sådant tidspunkt. Vi har nu en krise, der hovedsagligt er en menneskeskabt katastrofe i tillæg til det, der ellers ville have været en kontrollabel, men alvorlig, naturkatastrofe. Det er den menneskeskabte katastrofe, som er det hovedproblem, vi må konfrontere og overvinde.

Det, som vi nu må gøre, og årsagen til, at vi nu har denne krise i Louisiana, Mississippi og Alabama, er, at vi opgav politikken om en forfatningsmæssig forpligtelse til fremme af det Almene Vel. Og derfor, fordi vi indførte nedskæringer, nedskæringer af det Almene Vel, med den måde, hvorpå vi udplyndrede de sociale ydelser (til arbejdsløshed, sygedagpenge, sundhedsydelser m.v.), opretholdt vi ikke længere levestandarden og støtten til disse områder, som ville gøre det muligt for dem at håndtere mange af disse problemer. Vi leverede ikke det, der krævedes, i Louisiana, Mississippi og Alabama, selv om vi vidste, det behøvedes, fordi vi ikke ville bruge pengene, fordi vi forsøgte at skære ned på midlerne til vores sociale ydelser, så vi, lad os sige, kunne føre krig i Irak, eller en ny krig, de vil have i Iran – denne form for ting. Vi har nu denne situation for os, som er skabt af vor befolknings lidelser i disse tre stater i særdeleshed. Men det er ikke problemet; det stiller et større spørgsmål til os. Er vi en nation? Hvad definerer os som nation? Vi kan redde denne nation; vi kan bringe dens værdighed tilbage. Vi kan ikke bringe de mennesker tilbage, der mistede livet pga. embedsmisbrug i denne periode, men vi kan redde denne nation. Vi kan sige, at vi vandt denne krig. Det er op til jer. Vi må gå tilbage til Fortalen til USA’s Føderale Forfatning og anerkende, at denne nations grundlæggende lov findes i Fortalen. Ikke alene mht. det nationale forsvar, men også i fremme af det Almene Vel for de levende, og deres efterkommere. Vi har overtrådt princippet om nationens forsvar, åbenlyst. Vi har endnu mere åbenlyst overtrådt politikken for fremme af det Almene Vel. Vi dømmer os selv til foragt, med mindre vi går tilbage, og nu gør fremme af det Almene Vel for de levende og deres efterkommere til regeringsgrundlaget. Tak.«

Matthew Ogden: Dette var altså et webcast med Lyndon LaRouche fra september 2005. Under den efterfølgende spørgsmål-og-svar-tid, forklarede han faktisk mere detaljeret, hvordan man skulle anvende princippet om det Almene Vel for at redde USA. Det kommer her på skærmen [Figurer 2 & 3], to korte klip, og så læser jeg dem. Hr. LaRouche sagde:

»Der er derfor én løsning; og det er at gå til Fortalen for USA’s Forfatning, om nationalforsvar og fremme af det Almene Vel for de nuværende og fremtidige generationer. Regeringer sætter det nationale banksystem under konkursbehandling og bankerot og forhindrer bankerne i at smække dørene i; går igennem en finansiel reorganisering af systemet for at sikre, at folk ikke bliver smidt ud af deres hjem; deres foretagender fortsat er åbne; deres pensioner udbetales; og vi fortsætter med at vokse …

USA er den eneste nation, der har en Forfatning, der pr. tradition kvalificerer os til at gå over til statslig bankpraksis, som det beskrives af Hamilton. De private banker skal under konkursbehandling … de skal reorganiseres. Man rydder op i værdipapirerne, og man skaber ny kredit, der får økonomien til at vokse, gennem investering i infrastruktur og andre ting, der er tilstrækkelige til at sikre, at det, vi tjener om året, overstiger det, vi bruger om året med hensyn til de nuværende regnskaber. Og dét må vi gøre.«

Som I ser, så var dette for 12 år siden; og Lyndon LaRouche var allerede på scenen med præcis den politik, som er fremlagt i denne nøderklæring, som vi udstedte i sidste uge.

Jeg vil nu bede Paul Gallagher om at forklare lidt mere om dette. Hvor er vi nu, siden denne nøderklæring blev udstedt, og hvad mangler der at ske?

Her følger Paul Gallaghers indlæg, der efterfølges af Ben Denistons indlæg, i engelsk udskrift:  

PAUL GALLAGHER:  You mean the emergency statement that we
issued about two weeks or ten days ago.  I’ll come to that, but I
just want to point out, Lyndon LaRouche was making that statement
not only at the end of 2005 immediately after the devastation
from Hurricane Katrina, but also in the then-foreseeable — and
he had foreseen it for sure — preparations for the financial
crash of 2007-2008.  He was saying that in regard to that
oncoming crash and the disaster that had occurred in Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama, the reorganization of the private banks
of the United States under a Glass-Steagall standard, enabling
them to be mediators of credit both from savings and from the
Federal government into the businesses of the economy and also
the creation of national banking and large amounts of national
credit in that way precisely for infrastructure, not just
reconstruction.  Construction of infrastructure that never had
been produced, and had to be produced with new technologies then
in order to prevent future such disasters.  So, he was looking to
both.
There is a memory in the United States obviously of three
major cities being devastated.  And when we put out this policy
statement, we were thinking of the fact that the memory of the
devastation of New Orleans, the devastation of the New York-New
Jersey area a few years later, the devastation now of
southeastern Texas a few years after that, and the threat of
another one in Florida.  These are essentially a single memory, a
single thought in the minds of many millions of Americans about
what has to be done that hasn’t been being done.  When we as a
nation have allowed three of the greatest cities of the country
to be effectively, at least temporarily, destroyed.  In the case
of New Orleans and New York, the long-term damage to their
neighborhoods, to their school systems, to their transportation
systems, is still there.  The long-term damage to their economies
is still there, and it’s getting worse.  So, this has shown
something very clear that if you postpone and do not act on a $25
or $50 billion or even $100 billion infrastructure that must be
made, you will shortly be paying, in one way or another, hundreds
of billions of dollars in economic losses.  Losses of wages,
losses of jobs, losses — tragically — of human lives by the
hundreds and perhaps thousands as in Katrina; because you have
not done that.
In the 1930s, there was a kind of thinking which was driven
by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s leadership.  We’ve seen in the
last ten days the first — as Shelley would say, the locks of the
approaching storm — the first indications of the revival of that
kind of thinking.  The way they thought then about this was made
clear in the government TVA film that you showed on this program
last week, when the announcer said in showing the devastating
flooding, the raging Tennessee River and its tributaries
destroying buildings, destroying agricultural areas, killing
people.  The announcer described it as devastating effects on
human beings of greed and neglect; not of nature, but of greed
and neglect.  And it’s that neglect which LaRouche was speaking
about there, and it’s that neglect which we’ve seen in New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast, then New Jersey and New York, now
again in Texas and the Gulf Coast in the destruction of whole
cities and killing of people, completely unnecessarily.  This was
man-made, and I think there is a video which has come out down in
Houston, put out by the newspaper, the {Houston Chronicle}, of
the former flood control director of Harris County — which
includes Houston — in which he says very strongly right at the
beginning, “This was a man-made disaster”; meaning the flooding
of Hurricane Harvey and everything that it did.  He knew that
because he was personally involved in trying to get one of the
infrastructure solutions — only one of them — right in the city
of Houston that was necessary in order to prevent this kind of
devastating flooding.  He was unable to get it done because of
political and because of greed and neglect.  Neglect of the
Constitution, neglect of the General Welfare of the population,
he was unable to get it done.  He says this was a man-made
disaster.
Now, things are beginning to change.  I was in a meeting
with a senior figure who works for the House of Representatives
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee immediately after
Hurricane Harvey.  He said that they expected that discussion of
legislation on infrastructure funding would start sometime next
year.  This was only ten days ago.  He was saying it would start
sometime next year that they would begin to discuss the
possibility of legislation to fund new infrastructure in the
United States.  We were then in a situation in which the nearly
year-long and in a certain sense with his candidacy year and a
half-long attack on President Trump to attempt to force him out
as a candidate, and then attempt to force him out of the
Presidency.  That attack — the Soros forces, the British
intelligence initiated attack and the way in which the Democratic
Party leadership had gone along with this — had created a
tremendous division in the country; one which people only have to
remember back to the Charlottesville events of a month ago, to
realize how deep and how that implicit racial division in the
country was being pushed at the same time that war was
threatening from many directions.  We have to realize that, going
all the way back to the 1960s when John F Kennedy was
assassinated after having launched this tremendous infrastructure
program known as NASA and the Apollo Project, and having tried to
get started an equally ambitious Earth-based terraforming and
water management project for the entire West of North America —
the North American Water and Power Alliance program.  That it was
war, it was the Vietnam War and the tremendous economic,
budgetary, and political and social effects of that war which
destroyed those things.  It will consider and push them off the
table from then until now — for 50 years.  That kind of
preoccupation with regime change wars, it will push the General
Welfare off the table over and over again unless the American
people realize that, at a point like this, we can’t let that
happen.  Now we have to build.
So, we have seen some changes.  The one that got the most
publicity, of course, was the sudden agreement between President
Trump and the Democrats in Congress.  On the part of the
Democrats, they had already agreed and acknowledged and more or
less admitted in the days before that, that their strategy of
Resist promotes racial divisions.  Resist tried to impeach the
President.  This strategy was a failure and was dangerous to the
country, and they were going to abandon it if Hillary Clinton
would only shut up.  They were going to try and get something
done instead.  That already had dawned on them before the
terrible lesson of Hurricane Harvey and the perhaps $100 billion
in economic losses; clearly more than 100 precious lives being
lost.  This hit them on top of that.  You then had this agreement
that enable $15 billion in a first down payment of recovery aid
to go through, together with a measure to fund the government for
the next three months and a measure to remove the debt ceiling
for the next three months.  Clearing the decks perhaps for
further expansion of what is going to be done to rebuild.  Not
only to rebuild obviously in east Texas, but to rebuild in
Florida and to rebuild in Puerto Rico and some of the smaller
islands.  Puerto Rico has had for some time a very clear
possibility of a development bank needing only the guarantee of
the Federal government in order to turn development of its port
position particularly into development of infrastructure on the
island; electrical and transportation, which is currently in such
bad condition and which has now been knocked out. So, that door
was opened.
Then already yesterday, we saw the President having a
meeting with a large number of members of the Senate and the
House on the so-called Gateway Project, the major necessary
infrastructure step to repair what Hurricane Sandy left behind it
in terms of inoperable or increasingly deteriorating and failing
transportation; subway and freight rail transportation all around
the New York City area, which has famously been turned into the
Summer of Hell this summer in terms of trying to get anywhere.
You’re taking your life in your hands to get anywhere in New
York.
There was a meeting between Trump and the two governors of
New Jersey and New York, the Senators from New Jersey and New
York, a number of members of Congress of both parties, in which
there was a least a tentative agreement made to proceed with this
Gateway Project.  This involves building two new tunnels — each
one way — under the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York in
the general northeast rail corridor of the United States.  Having
done that, then to be able to repair the tunnels which were made
almost inoperable by Sandy; which incredibly have nonetheless
been used in the five years since.  Also, to replace the bridge
which is in such terrible condition in Hackensack, over which all
of the East Coast passenger and freight rail goes from Florida
all the way to New England.  Supposedly, 10% of the GDP is
waiting to fail when that bridge cannot be hammered back into
line so the trains can go over it.  There are other improvements
in this Gateway Project.  It was given a top priority in the
National Governors’ Association list of major new infrastructure
projects in the country, which they issued earlier this year in
January.
The members of Congress coming out of this meeting made
clear that there was an optimism and a thrust, a potential
commitment of the Trump administration to fund all the funding
that remains to be needed for that; this is on the order of up to
$15 billion from the Federal side that needs to be put in that
investment.  They were, at least on the part of the President,
they were ready to make that commitment, and talked about others
as well for that general area; including reconstruction for the
international airports there and connecting those international
airports — which incredibly, are not connected by transportation
now.  This then started people talking about the potentials for
Congress to meet these bills.  There is not a means, and there
hasn’t been a means really since Franklin Roosevelt’s
administration, there hasn’t been a reliable means by which the
Federal government can create this kind of credit that Mr.
LaRouche was talking about, and on that basis actually fund the
new infrastructure that is needed.
Now you have in Texas as well, members of Congress from both
parties talking about a major new building of flood control for
the cities along the southeast coast of Texas on the Gulf.  I’ll
just read you the comment of one Republican member of Congress.
He said, “There’s going to be another Harvey, and we need to
build at least one more reservoir, maybe two or more reservoirs.
We have to figure out how to get the water out of the Houston
area down to the Gulf of Mexico without flooding.”  There have
been plans for at least 50 years which at least expressed in
general, if you have that slide I gave you [Fig. 4], we could
show one of them, which expressed at least in general how this
has to be done.  It’s very small and can only be indicated in the
broadest strokes that what is involved there is, at the lower
right, the construction of an intercoastal canal.  Essentially a
large canal for moving water either from the northeast to the
southwest along the coast, but behind the cities of the coast.
Moving it in either direction by pumping.  Thereby you can see
generally, the numerous rivers which come down to the Gulf, which
are involved always in the flooding of all of these cities
whenever there is a hurricane. What you probably cannot see
clearly on that slide, is that there are nine new reservoirs
specified in that plan on those rivers, which together with the
canal make it possible to control flood waters that are
threatening the cities on the Texas Gulf coast and to move water
in either direction.  Either for drought relief, if that’s
necessary, but more critically here, for flood relief by bringing
the water eventually all the way down to the Rio Grande at the
Mexican border.  This is one element.  At the top of the screen
is shown another main element canal system to bring flood water
from the Mississippi River across northern Texas into the dry
plains where the Ogallala Aquifer is, which could be recharged.
These were plans of the Texas State Water Authority.  These
were state plans typical of those which were made at the time in
Harris County, within which is Houston.  Other plans were being
made for a channel underneath one of the freeways that was being
built, which would discharge water.  A very large underground
channel, tunnel, which would discharge water from those two
reservoirs which everyone heard and saw overflowing ten days ago.
It would discharge and bring that water down to the Houston ship
channel and into the Gulf.  That was, I think, particularly the
plan which the former Harris County Flood Control Commissioner
was referring to in his interview with the {Chronicle} in which
he said, “This was a man-made disaster that we did not get this
done.”
Now these clearly are, as the New York project is, these are
new infrastructure efforts which will require tens of billions of
dollars in investments.  That is exactly what we have been
circulating in Congress, and circulating this statement now with
them in order to get a national bank created, which can generate
$1-3 trillion in national Federal credit for investment in this
new infrastructure.  And in order to get the existing
Glass-Steagall legislation in both Houses to be passed so that
these disasters are not added to by a looming financial crash
which takes the banks to be bailed out again.  But rather, those
banks can be counted on to take part in this kind of rebuilding
effort because they are taking in deposits and they are lending
them into the economy.
Ben is going to talk more about the contributions here of
the space program.  That also must see not just $100 billion or
whatever it’s going to be in recovery aid for Harvey, but a great
deal more money in accelerating and reviving NASA space
exploration, which went the way of the Vietnam War nearly 60
years ago.
So the view of this is changing.  The Texas governor has now
created a commission to rebuild the state.  As a Republican, he’s
appointed a Democrat to head it.  On all of these levels, there
is the potential now that this lesson will actually be learned,
because the country has been put in a different state of mind as
a result of seeing this kind of disaster occur unnecessarily time
and time again, and the tremendous human costs that it has.  So,
let’s really push that to the greatest extent we can, and do it
in exactly the spirit that LaRouche was laying out there 12 years
ago.  He, by the way, is 95 years old today.  He has lived and is
living an incredibly productive human existence, and we wish him
many more.

OGDEN:  And one of the results of what Lyn has done over the
last 40 years alongside Helga is what’s now emerging
internationally.  You can counter pose what hasn’t been done here
in the United States in terms of these great infrastructure
projects with what is being done now by China and the Belt and
Road Initiative.  It’s a necessary counterpoint to draw.  Look at
what Xi Jinping had to say at the BRICS conference which occurred
— this is the 9th BRICS conference — which occurred in China
over the course of last week and the beginning of this week.  You
look at what China is actually now building.  Obviously, the
Three Gorges Dam is an incredible example; that’s the Chinese
TVA, but on an even grander scale in certain regards.  But look
at now what’s being done abroad, including the example of the
Transaqua water transfer program to refill Lake Chad in Africa.
There’s an excellent video update that was published by Alicia
Cerretani on larouchepac.com just a couple of days ago on that
subject.  But that indeed should continue to be the inspiration,
encapsulating the entirety of this emergency program that must be
done nationally, we also have to follow through on the initiative
for the United States to join this great projects dynamic abroad.
What’s being done by China with the New Silk Road and the Belt
and Road Initiative.
What Paul has just been discussing, and even what I
referenced with what China has done, is an element of the
terrestrial infrastructure that indeed must be built, and should
by built by all means.  But there’s an entirely different
dimension that also must be included in this picture when we’re
talking about these great weather episodes and other aspects of
what it means to understand and harness nature.  I decided to ask
Ben Deniston to come on today because he has a bit of an
exclusive breaking report on what the space weather conditions
are right now as we speak, which are coinciding with the
developments around Hurricane Irma and the other approaching
hurricanes that are now tracking across the Atlantic.  So, Ben,
go ahead.

BENJAMIN DENISTON:  Thank you, Matthew.  So, we are seeing a
very interesting situation with respect to certain activities of
our Sun, our Solar System, and what you might call the cosmic
environment that we’re watching very closely; because these could
play into a strengthening of Hurricane Irma, which could push an
already potentially dangerous situation into something even
worse.  I’m going to get into that a little bit more in just a
second, but I think first and foremost, coming off of what was
discussed, these events — the tragedy of Harvey, the major
earthquake just off the coast in Mexico, the largest earthquake
in Mexico in 100 years.  We have Irma as we just said, coming
towards Florida, which hopefully will avoid a dangerous situation
there, but it does look like it could be potentially very
catastrophic.  All of these events should remind us that what
we’re dealing with as a single mankind on one small planet in the
Solar System and in this Galaxy.  These are unfortunate events,
but also an opportunity to bring people together as we discussed,
not just in the United States, but internationally.  To realize
what mankind can uniquely do to defend ourselves against these
kinds of situations.  Some of that includes a better
understanding of what factors actually play into these things.
In passing, just because there’s so much crazy propaganda
about supposed man-made climate change being a factor in these
storms, that’s just bunk; that should just be said outright.
It’s unfortunate that we even have to say it, but given the fact
that this is being pushed as a major top-down propaganda
campaign, we should just say outright that there is no evidence
at all that storm systems and extreme weather has been getting
worse as a function of increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
There is no evidence of that.  Even just look at the history of
hurricanes in the United States.  Since 1970, we’ve had four
Category 4 or higher hurricanes make landfall on the United
States.  In the 40 years prior to that, we had 14.  So, what’s
all this talk about extreme weather getting worse?  We just
recently exited a very anomalous drought of hurricanes, where we
had no Category 3 plus hurricane make landfall on the United
States for almost 12 years earlier at the turn of this century.
So, there’s no evidence that we’re seeing more extreme
situations; there’s no evidence that human CO2 emissions play any
factor at all.  Again, it’s unfortunate that we have to waste our
time to even address this, but just because it’s being pushed
down the throats of the American people and much of the world
population, we should just make that clear outright.
But what we do have is natural weather and natural storms
and natural extreme events.  Instead of this false blaming of
human CO2 emissions, we should instead be taking a higher
perspective on what factors actually do influence extreme weather
and climate change.  These are factors that go beyond the Earth.
These are factors that go to the Sun, that go to the Solar
System.  That again, forced mankind to realize we are one very
unique species on one very small planet; and we know very little
about what actually determines the conditions we live in here on
Earth.  So, it’s about time that humankind as a whole wakes up,
stops playing these insane geopolitical games to try and compete
over some small amount of wealth developed on the planet so far,
and realizes that if we collaborate as one species, we can uplift
the entire population of this planet to a much higher level.  And
we can collaborate on defending our entire planet from disasters
like this.
So, as Matt mentioned, this is a developing situation that I
briefed him on and Mr. LaRouche and Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche on
earlier this morning about possible space weather effects which
could worsen Hurricane Irma.  Again, this is an ongoing process
that is playing out, so we don’t know exactly what’s going to
happen.  But it is worth highlighting what we know so far.  As we
know, Hurricane Irma is now thought to be a couple of days away
from most likely making landfall on the southern coast of
Florida.  It is already a very extreme and intense hurricane.
Just a few days prior, our Sun — if we can switch over to the
graphic animation [Fig. 5] we have here — our Sun released the
strongest solar flare in about a decade.  This was released on
September 6th.  So that bright flash in the lower right central
region is this explosion on the surface of the Sun.  This was
classified as an X-9 flare; a very strong solar flare.  That was
actually the strongest of a series of intense solar flares that
the Sun has released in the last week.  So, the Sun — despite
going into a bit of a slumber — has decided to send out a
barrage of rather strong outbursts.  These outbursts send a
strong wave of gas and plasma from the Sun barrelling at the
Earth.  As we see in this next graphic [Fig. 6], as is a rather
well-known phenomenon, when the Earth’s magnetic field gets
blasted by these outbursts from the Sun, it causes the Earth’s
magnetic field to begin to fluctuate wildly; what’s called a
“geo-magnetic storm.”  So, a storm in the Earth’s magnetic field.
I’m sure most people know, our entire planet is surrounded
by a magnetic field that is critical to supporting and protecting
life on Earth, providing certain unique electromagnetic
conditions to the biosphere on Earth; it’s part of our regular
Earth system we live with day to day, year to year, etc.  When
the Earth’s magnetic field gets blasted with these outbursts of
solar activity, the Earth’s magnetic field goes into these
fluctuations referred to as “geo-magnetic storms.”  What you’re
looking at here [Fig. 7] is an index provided by NOAA of the
level of geo-magnetic activity over the last three or four days.
As you can see, coming into the night of September 7th and into
the very early morning of September 8th, we saw an explosion of a
very intense geo-magnetic storm, corresponding with these
outbursts of solar activity which are referred to as a “coronal
mass ejection”; an ejection of material from the surface of the
Sun, corresponding with that intersecting Earth’s magnetic field.
As you might intuit from this diagram, what we’ve currently
experiencing is a very intense event; a very intense geo-magnetic
storm classified as severe by NOAA’s metrics.
There’s much that can be said about this.  These
geo-magnetic storms are known to be potentially dangerous to the
Earth’s electrical infrastructure.  That’s something that’s
becoming a very well-known and clear point of concern, that when
we have these types of geo-magnetic storms, this can actually
wreak havoc on our electrical grid.  That’s something we actually
want to keep a very close eye on today and in the coming days.
But another aspect of this, which we see in the next graphic
[Fig. 8] is that when the Earth’s magnetic field is compressed
like this, this actually temporarily increases the shielding of
the Earth from galactic cosmic radiation.  So, we temporarily
have a stronger protection from this continuous flow, this
continuous input of radiation coming from our entire galactic
system.  This is also another well-known phenomenon; this is
referred to as a “Forbush decrease,” named after the scientist
who identified this event whose name was Scott Forbush.  But as
you can see here, from the most recent data being provided, this
is an indication of the level of galactic radiation reaching the
Earth’s atmosphere, and we can see this sharp drop coming
immediately in the context of this geomagnetic storm and the
solar outburst.
These are all well-known phenomena.  These are not
mysterious, these are not unexplained or unknown, but there’s an
element of this that does not yet get enough attention; which is
that, when you have this particular type of activity, geomagnetic
storms, reduction of the cosmic radiation reaching the Earth’s
atmosphere, this is known to very likely be a factor in
potentially increasing the severity and strength of hurricanes
and cyclones.  And what we have on the screen here is one study,
showing that in 2005, this tragic event of Hurricane Katrina
which we heard referenced earlier, was actually partially
strengthened by the activity of the Sun in a very similar way to
what we’re looking at right now. [Fig. 9]  This was a study by
Prof. Sergei Pulinets, and some associates as you can see on the
byline there; where they analyzed a very similar situation where,
when Katrina was a few days off the Gulf Coast for its actually
second landfall, there was a coronal mass ejection, there was a
geomagnetic storm, and that led to a strengthening of Hurricane
Katrina at the time.
What we’re looking at now, today, is a potentially similar
situation, where what we see with these cosmic effects on the
weather system, is that when you have these reductions in cosmic
radiation reaching the atmosphere, that actually can lead to a
greater temperature difference between the surface of the ocean
and the top of the atmosphere, which can lead to a greater rate
of convection and a strengthening of the hurricane.
And so those are the conditions we’re immediately watching
now with Hurricane Irma, which is already a very strong
hurricane.  We’re already seeing a geomagnetic storm. Various
people who are aware of these potential cosmic influences on
these events are watching very closely to see if we will see a
strengthening of Irma in response to these conditions.
This is a developing situation; I’m sure we’ll have more on
this in the coming days, but as I said at the beginning, this is
an unfortunate but valid example of the kinds of lessons we
should take to heart as mankind, and realize that this is for
example the perfect area of study that we, the United States.
should be collaborating on with Russia and with China on
developing greater insights into.
This brings back to mind Mr. LaRouche’s work on the
Strategic Defense Initiative and the revival of that proposal
with the “Strategic Defense of the Earth,” where the same
principle was brought forward; namely, that the United States,
Russia, leading powers need to move beyond a system of conflict
and mutually assured destruction and towards a system where we
realize that mankind as a whole, and especially these leading
most powerful nations, have to come together and provide all the
resources we have available as nations, all of our scientific
capabilities, all of our technologies, and actually bring these
together in joint efforts to defend our planet as a whole from
these types of events.  Better understand these cosmic influences
driving our climate and weather systems, and begin to determine
what we can do to defend our populations from these types of
activities.
So we’ll be watching the situation very closely.  We’ll see
what develops over the coming days, and we’ll certainly have more
on this very dramatic situation with these coming hurricanes as
things develop.

OGDEN:  Thank you, Ben.

GALLAGHER:  Actually, I have two questions, Ben.  The
meteorologists are saying now that there’s an extremely high
temperature differential between the upper atmosphere and the
Earth’s surface in the western Atlantic and the Gulf; they’re
connecting that directly to the great strength of these
hurricanes.  Are you saying this is related? In that work that
you just showed [by Pulinets, et al.], that this is related to
the reduced cosmic irradiation of the upper atmosphere?  That’s
one question.
The other has to do with the space assets that are watching
all this.  Do they need to be increased?  I heard, for example,
that in the case of radar satellite observations of the
development of Harvey, that these were German radar satellites
that were doing this.  Are there missing assets or assets that
should be increased in the U.S., in the NASA program?

DENISTON:  Yes, to take the first question.  Generally, over
time the upper atmosphere will be cooler than the oceans in this
region.  So you have a certain temperature differential that’s
already naturally there.
The role that galactic radiation plays, is that actually
helps to facilitate a higher rate of condensation of water vapor,
and release of latent heat, in this region. So the flux of cosmic
radiation actually helps to facilitate a slight warming of the
upper atmosphere in this region.  If you have that process all of
a sudden halted, you’ll get less warming, and obviously cooling
of the upper atmosphere, which could increase the temperature
difference and lead to an even stronger hurricane.
That process is happening now; the conditions that are being
reported on already are before we’re seeing the effects of this.
Now obviously, this is not a simplistic, mechanical, 1, 2, 3,
process.  There are many factors involved, there’s variations in
the cosmic radiation flux coming in already; there’s many other
factors involved in affecting the hurricane itself.  So we’re not
in a position to absolutely say one way or the other exactly what
the effect of this situation is going to be.  But we can
definitely identify Katrina; and then other hurricanes have been
studied as well, where it’s been shown that there formation or
their strengthening often comes a couple days after these types
of geomagnetic storms and drops in the cosmic radiation flux.
Again, the mechanism, the causal relation that Professor Pulinets
and others have presented, is that relates to this heating of the
upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation flux.
But that directly ties into your second question, is that,
yeah, we need many more satellites and other instruments to be
monitoring these conditions, much more extensively and in real
time around the world.  We do have some very impressive assets up
there;  but much more is needed to really better understand, not
just the Earth’s own atmosphere and weather system, but the
relation to the activity of the Sun and the activity of the
Galaxy.  One of our key assets for directly measuring the
activity coming from the Sun towards the Earth, which is called
the ACE satellite, is already many years past its life expectancy
and expected to fail at any time.  As of now, we have no
replacement ready to send up.  That’s just one example.  That’s a
satellite that sits directly in between the Earth and the Sun,
and intercepts the high-energy radiation, especially the plasma,
coming from the Sun before it reaches the Earth, and at least
gives us a little bit of a warning and analysis of what the Sun
is sending at us.  And that thing is ready to go.  That’s just
one example.
I think this also relates to the question of earthquakes and
earthquake forecasting which we’ve covered on this site before
also. [See interview with Prof. Sergey Pulinets
http://archive.larouchepac.com/node/17944]  We could use
dedicated satellites that could help measure the precursor
conditions, that could alert us to coming earthquakes, like this
devastating earthquake that just hit off the coast of Mexico.
So there are certainly more satellite systems that we could
be developing, more ground-based systems as well,  to get some
better understanding of the intersection of solar activity,
galactic activity, the activity intrinsic to the Earth system
itself;  and actually begin to get a better handle on how all
these factors play together in affecting the climate and
affecting the weather.  And really, to get serious about it,
begin to think about how we can manage these situations and
intervene; and obviously, forecast and give early warning, but
potentially even intervene to change these conditions and defend
life on Earth.
And that should be a top, strategic priority of leading
nations of the world. And I think that just goes hand in hand
with this new paradigm that we’re seeing potentially emerging
with the leadership of China, with its Belt and Road initiative,
and with this idea of “win-win cooperation”; in which we can move
beyond, finally, and put behind us this insane geopolitical games
which you’re still seeing attempting to be rammed down Americans’
throats with this crazy lie about Russian “hacking” and
attempting to make the Russians look like the biggest bogeymen in
the world, and play up this crazy game of conflict against
Russia, economic warfare against China. These are our allies!
We’ve got to put all of this behind us and look at them as
collaborators, for our nation, for other nations in the world
that can help us to defend our species as a whole against these
kinds of conditions.

OGDEN:  Let me pick up directly off what you just
referenced, Ben, and put on the screen the advertisement for the
conference that’s coming up in New York City tomorrow, which will
go directly to that point.  This is a conference as you can see
that’s featuring William Binney, NSA whistleblower; Ray McGovern,
the founder of the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
(VIPS) and himself a veteran CIA analyst; and William Wertz from
{Executive Intelligence Review}.  The title of the event, is:
“The Russian ‘Hack’ Inside Job:  Who’s Trying To Destroy the
Presidency and Start a World War with Russia?”  As you can see on
the screen there, there’s still time for you to RSVP and register
to attend, that’s going to be available, http://lpac.co/ytvips .
That link is active now, but it’s going to be available in the
description of the video which is immediately below this video in
the YouTube player.  If you’re in New York City also you can get
in contact, and register for the event in person.
This is going to be an historic event, following up on the
memo, which is becoming a controversial memo which was published
by William Binney, Ray McGovern and others from VIPS, which
documented that according to the metadata the so-called “Russian
hack” of DNC emails could not have been a hack, but was in fact
some sort of inside job, a leak in order to set up the conditions
where, now, you have this so-called Russia-gate, and the mad
drive to undermine the efforts that Trump had at least intended
to initiate to restore the kinds of cooperate relation between
the United States and Russia.
It’s this kind of great powers relationship between the
United States and Russia, the U.S. and China, what we now see
developing in terms of the BRICS, with Russia, China, India,
Brazil and South Africa and other national relationships:  This
is what Lyndon LaRouche has been campaigning for for years, in
that form.  To say, now is the time to abandon and discard this
British Imperial mentality of geopolitics, petty competition over
so-called natural resources, or “limited” natural resources, and
perpetual war; and to initiate exactly what you’re saying, Ben,
this kind of cooperation within the species as a whole: To say,
what are the common aims of mankind and how can we collaborate in
a “win-win” modality to achieve those common aims.
And under that category you would say that common defense of
mankind  from these great natural and terrestrial,
extraterrestrial phenomena, which we see expressed in discrete
ways in the form of these hurricanes, those kinds of natural
disasters; also these earthquakes, which are obviously part of
much broader and much larger kind of terrestrial phenomena, which
we have yet to understand.  And what is the connection of that to
the space weather that our planet exists in?
So that’s a fascinating kind of view.
But just in the same way that we have to abandon those
geopolitics abroad, we also have to abandon the kinds of
British/Wall Street mentality here in the United States, which is
this insane negligence of our physical infrastructure, and in the
interest of mere, monetary speculation; and to return to the
general welfare principle, you heard Mr. LaRouche so beautifully
and emphatically say that, in that webcast excerpt that we have
from 2005, in the aftermath of Katrina; return to the general
welfare and restore the system of Hamiltonian national credit.
So I think that’s a sufficient place to conclude our
broadcast here, today.  I’d like to thank you, Ben, for joining
us, remotely there.  And we’ll stay tuned for developments as
they occur on that front.  And I’d like to thank Paul Gallagher
for joining me here in the studio.
So please tune in on this website tomorrow, at 1 p.m.
Eastern Time, for the historic conference out of New York City,
featuring Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, and Will Wertz; and we’ll be
back with you on Monday for our strategic overview.
Thank you for joining us and please stay tuned to
larouchepac.com.