News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Manhattan Town Hall event with Kesha Rogers 24 September 2017 LPAC—In discussion with Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, LaRouche PAC Policy Committee member Kesha Rogers emphasized: "What we’ve seen in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico etc. with these hurricanes, is massive destruction made much worse by a longstanding monetarist policy of criminal negligence. This has been a deliberate Wall Street-City of London policy of financial speculation, build up of debt, leading to radical austerity, and the decades-long crippling of investment in infrastructure like flood control and related preparation for the inevitable storms. "What will we do now? We have seen the personal tragedies, as with my father and stepmother drowning in Houston; we have seen enormous, unnecessary destruction of life But it would be a much greater tragedy if the American people and our Presidency, our Government, fail to seize the moment of crisis as a rare moment of opportunity to not just rebuild, but lift our infrastructure to a higher platform needed for the next storms, and the future of our nation. The solution is available: Implement LaRouche’s Four Laws, join with China’s Belt and Road Initiative TODAY, NOW!!! "We need now the uniquely human qualities of creativity and courage. We need what Friedrich Schiller calls the ’Sublime,’ where we act for humanity, for posterity, no matter what the personal consequences. We need a transformation of our nation, of our citizens, to secure the future through this quality of the Sublime." TRANSCRIPT DENNIS SPEED: My name is Dennis Speed, and on behalf of the LaRouche Political Action Committee, I want to welcome everybody here for today’s Dialogue with LaRouche for Saturday, September 23, 2017. We’re going to go right to the central topic. These were the words of Helga LaRouche making comment on both President Trump’s speech at the United Nations and also Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia’s response to that speech. She said, "It’s very clear that Foreign Minister Lavrov responded to the positive elements of Trump’s speech, but it’s also clear that there are very negative and very destructive elements of Trump’s speech which came across as almost two different speeches. How can you denounce regime change on the one hand, and then make a list of half a dozen regimes that you demand to be changed in the very same speech? The solution here is that Trump has to follow through on the constructive things he said; but he must also abandon the policies which are obviously destructive. This North Korea thing could blow up at any minute if this policy continues. It’s nice that Trump said the things that he did in the beginning, but it’s almost like there are two opposing policies coming out of his mouth. What’s very clear is that there are two opposing interests working on Trump. There’s a war going on for the soul of this Presidency. The positive elements of this policy statement must be reinforced and strengthened, but the negative elements — such as the verbal escalation against North Korea — should be recognized as an effort on the part of certain elements in this administration to drive a wedge in the potential for cooperation between the United States and China. This policy has clearly been inserted by the neo-con elements which are still influencing his Presidency. What we must do is demand that Trump stick to his promise which he expressed in the campaign, to cooperate with Russia and with China. This is the world of independent nations united for a common cause and shared interests which he referred to at the conclusion of his speech. This should absolutely be pursued; but what that means is that this other stuff has got to go." So, that was the essential core of her remarks. The only thing I would like to add at this point to those remarks is something pretty straightforward but important to emphasize in the Manhattan Project. The principle of the General Welfare, established by Gouverneur Morris in his writing of the Preamble of the United States Constitution, is a scientific principle and therefore an economic principle. If you look at the four leading states of the United States in terms of population — California, Texas, Florida, and New York — what’s their situation? Each one of them is now facing an existential crisis. Drought and earthquakes in the case of California; the recent disasters that happened in Texas and Florida; and here in New York State, not only the collapse of its infrastructure, but also the collapse in Puerto Rico which is entirely identified with New York State. The idea that Puerto Rico is not part of the United States is as false as it is convenient. The dam that is now breaking in Puerto Rico was built 90 years ago; and the reason that was built was because there was a hurricane in 1928 — Hurricane San Felipe — which did about $50 million worth of damage and killed 300 people. That’s why they built the dam that’s there now; that’s the last time that you had this. So, what you see is that we cannot address each of these in itself, or even all of them together; because we have to anticipate other crises in other areas and not just in the United States, but all over the world. There has to be one principle of the common aims of mankind, just as we have discussed on many different occasions. So, what we want to do is now introduce Diane Sare from our Policy Committee, who will give us the international overview; and then she will introduce our keynote speaker for today. DIANE SARE: Good afternoon. Hello Kesha, and welcome to Manhattan. So, we are really in an excruciating moment in human history. You heard what Mrs. LaRouche had to say about President Trump’s address to the United Nations. The way that I think we might consider this is that that speech is not so much a — part of it is clearly a statement of intent and direction, which I’ll get to later in terms of what President Trump had to say which was very positive and significant; indicating the end of the unipolar world order, and to which the Russians have responded so positively. The other part being this regime change and war part. But I think it would be useful to consider this as sort of a footprint of a battle that is being fought out in the world as a whole, and which — as you may remember we reported last week on North Korea — Lyndon LaRouche’s comment was that the United States is crucial. That is, the United States is going to be the crucial factor in determining which way humanity goes. Unfortunately, as all of us here know, the portion of the American population that has a sense of the battle that’s being fought out in the international arena, and not simply as a local affair, is very small. That is the challenge that we face. So, where are we? Obviously we have an extreme situation in terms of the weather which has hit. People know, and I won’t reiterate, what Ben Deniston has had to say about that. We are not being devastated by the effects of man-made global warming. That is a completely unscientific stupid approach; although Ben Deniston did warn us a couple of weeks ago that the Sun was experiencing an extremely severe magnetic storm. In the past, these storms have had the effect of strengthening hurricanes, of strengthening weather events. Such a magnetic storm occurred, for example, before Katrina. So, Ben Deniston, of LaRouche’s Basement Team, without any satellites of his own, made perhaps a more accurate forecast of what was about to strike us than our so-called weather services. So, we had the earthquake in Mexico, the Hurricanes Harvey in Houston, Irma hitting Florida, and now Maria devastating Puerto Rico. Just to put this in mind, I think part of the reason that the news media is not covering the scope of the damage, is because if that were to be faced, the only way that this possibly can be addressed is with a program of a national and international scope. There is no private corporation, there is no public/private partnership that is going to rebuild a quarter, a third, or all of the United States. It can only be done by a policy from the Federal government, with the magnitude of credit that is required. And I would hope that we would be wise enough to work with the Chinese, who seem to demonstrate that they can get things done competently and quickly. We have the potential to do that, but we also — as many people have seen — have the potential to have things like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway under construction for 32 years. We don’t have time to do that. So, I’ll start with Puerto Rico. The population is 3.7 million; 18% of that population is 65 or older. So, think about the impact of this situation on people who are elderly, who are infirm, who have illnesses. Of the 3.7 million, only 1 million are employed. The official unemployment rate is 11.5%; but it’s really much higher. The population of Puerto Rico has declined by 10% in the last 10 years, because many young professionals — people who can afford to leave — are leaving. Puerto Rico is a protectorate of the United States; the United States is responsible for the situation there. It should be looked upon as part of the United States. I think that has to be taken into account. There were 34 hospitals. I don’t know how many of them are functioning now. As people have heard, the entire island is without electricity. As people heard, in the last 24 hours, the Guajataca Dam which Dennis just referenced, which was built in 1929, was going to be failing; and there were 70,000 people in the path of that water who had to be notified with no electricity, no satellite cell towers. The last I heard last night was they thought they had managed to reach 50% of the people in the path of the flood that was about to occur. They’re saying that electricity will not be back there for months. Also, people should know that the rates of electricity — as we see everywhere in the United States — when people are poorer, when people feel that they have less power, then Wall Street and its interests loot them all the more. So, in very poor neighborhoods — I used to see this in Washington DC — in the poorest neighborhoods, the prices of groceries was the highest. In Puerto Rico, the price of electricity from a crappy, broken-down system is double and triple what people pay here; and now, does not exist. Then, we have the situation in Mexico of the earthquake. They are saying there are about 309,000 people now displaced. The death toll was 250 people; it’s probably going to rise. Then we have Harvey. I have to say, we don’t have yet, we haven’t been able to put together what the exact scale of damage was from Irma, and what the status is in Florida. But in Texas, the flooding hit more than 125,000 homes. We know 500,000 vehicles were destroyed. They’re saying 40-50,000 homes were destroyed. In Houston, probably 11% of the apartments have been destroyed. There were reports from yesterday that 31 million gallons of raw sewage has spilled out because the sewage plants were flooded and overrun. They have literally tons and tons of debris, as people went back and tried to clean up. What they’re getting out of their houses is soggy carpets and sheet rock. These are things that have been flooded by millions of tons of raw sewage. It’s a toxic mess; a health hazard. They’re saying that they’re not going to be able to even pick up this trash until Thanksgiving to get to all of it. It turns out that our nation, which has a defense budget now of about $700 billion, has only 300 trucks in Tennessee that can move this kind of waste; and they’re usually used for moving timber. They work with logging companies. They prefer to remove the waste in Florida, because that’s tree trunks and debris that they’re used to moving, not the very difficult material that they’re used to moving in Houston. They said the amount of waste that is lying around that would have to be moved, would fill up the stadium there twice. So, that’s just a — you can think through, let it sink in what are the implications of this kind of disaster, this magnitude of disaster. How it should be rebuilt; how this should be addressed, and what the timetable is for doing such a thing. Then, on the war danger, we have the situation with Korea. The British, of course, are pushing this like crazy. I saw a video last night on BBC, which had the headline "What Does War on the Korean Peninsula Look Like?" So, they go through their scenario about how if Kim Jong-Un felt threatened, that he would likely launch all kinds of war against South Korea. Seoul is only 30 miles away from them; it would be very easy, even if other capacity were knocked out, for North Korea to kill hundreds of thousands of people in South Korea. Then they say that because North Korea is so impoverished, they would only be able to resupply themselves for two weeks, at which point they would be faced with a choice to surrender or use a nuclear missile that they allegedly have or don’t have, it doesn’t matter. Then the video ends with this nuclear missile being launched from North Korea. The thing really struck me as a Dr. Strangelove-type sexual fantasy. I mean, this is the British Empire. I would remind people that a colleague of mine and Kesha’s on the Policy Committee made the point yesterday that you have this seemingly peculiar phenomenon of all these Hollywood stars in California — supposedly the Left. Well, wasn’t the Left the people who hated CIA and hated the FBI? Weren’t they the flower children who wanted peace? So why are all the Hollywood stars calling for the assassination of President Trump, and promoting war with Russia? What’s going on here? Dave said look, the Congress for Cultural Freedom — which was an operation which we can take up more — but was run after World War II, to destroy the culture of the United States and in particular to make us susceptible to fascism. It was cultural warfare, it was not just anti-science, it was not just the rock-drug-sex counterculture per se; but you had people like Theodore Adorno. It was a total assault as you had in the Cultural Revolution under Mao in China against Classical music. Theodore Adorno said that Beethoven demonstrated that genius and insanity went together; that Beethoven was insane, that he couldn’t write a fugue. He listed what the aims of modern music were. The ultimate aim of modern music is necrophilia — sex with dead things, or sex while dying. Anyway, it came to mind when I watched this BBC video of a war on the Korean Peninsula. So, this is a pretty alarming picture of the dynamic in the world between the disasters that we’re facing due to lack of serious economic development and the threat of war. On the other hand, what is going on? What are China, Russia, the BRICS nations doing? None of which is really covered in the United States; including cooperation which is a direct result of President Trump’s meeting with Putin in Hamburg. Like the fact that the Syrian Army is actually gaining control of Syria and crushing ISIS. That is not discussed, and that is also a point of controversy and potential attack. But you had the recent conference of the BRICS nations, where now China and India are in the process of peacefully resolving one of the major territorial disputes that’s been going on for some time. You have Egypt wanting to become part of the BRICS nations, you would have a link between Northern Africa and Europe. You have China’s decision to fund the project of the Transaqua in the center of Africa to refill Lake Chad; the largest water project imaginable which when carried out, and when the deserts begin to be greened, also would have an impact on reducing the effects of the formation of hurricanes and things like that. You have the Kra Canal now under discussion. You have the continent of Africa, which is now number one in the amount of new rail being constructed. Then the Chinese plan which is very relevant with the situation in Puerto Rico, where China is going to invest $4.7 billion to rebuild Port au Prince in Haiti. There’s a very short video you can find on YouTube which is completely exciting; because what they have planned will make this city virtually destruction-proof. The flood control, the water treatment, it’s extraordinary. China cannot do that with Puerto Rico, because Puerto Rico is part of the United States. We are responsible; we would have to make those agreements. But the point is that this can be done. So, the world therefore can very clearly go one of two ways. The United States is going to hold the key. It’s in that context that I will — we’ve heard some of it for you who saw the webcast last night — just read you a couple little excerpts of President Trump’s speech. You will hear that it was very remarkable in both respects. He says: "To put it simply, we meet at a time of both of immense promise and great peril. It is entirely up to us whether we lift the world to new heights, or let it fall into a valley of disrepair. "We have it in our power, should we so choose, to lift millions from poverty, to help our citizens realize their dreams, and to ensure that new generations of children are raised free from violence, hatred, and fear. "This institution [the UN] was founded in the aftermath of two world wars to help shape this better future. It was based on the vision that diverse nations could cooperate to protect their sovereignty, preserve their security, and promote their prosperity." And very importantly, he says "We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government.... In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch." So, as Lavrov said initially, this is the first President he’s heard in a very long time who says that the United States is not seeking to run around imposing our will on your nations. This is extremely significant. Then, he shifts and basically announces that we can obliterate North Korea; that Iran is facing a choice, that they are exporting terror, they’re running a terrorist regime. Then he favorably contrasts Saudi Arabia, which Saudi Arabia is the exporter of terror and was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Then he denounces Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons; which did not occur, and there’s been no proof. Just as there’s been no proof of the Russian hacking of the elections. So, I don’t have to — you’ve heard all of the more hyped-up stuff in the media about war, but this is Mrs. LaRouche’s point. It is, as Matt called it last night, "A Tale of Two Speeches". That gets me to one of the major areas that we have to fight on, which is this attempt to run a coup against this President. People should remember the headline of the London Spectator at the time of the inauguration, which said, "Will President Trump Be Assassinated, Removed in a Coup, or Merely Impeached?" That was the express intent of the British Empire. Why would they want to do this to President Trump? Because of his stated intent that it were better to work with Russia, better to work with China, and he reiterated that again at a press conference in Manhattan not long after he took office. He said I don’t need access to classified documents to know what happens if you have a war between two nuclear superpowers. No one would survive. It is better to get along with them. So, what do you have? You have on the one hand, the very courageous actions of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; two of whom were here on September 9th — Ray McGovern and William Binney — along with Will Wertz from Executive Intelligence Review. What Will presented was the picture of the British Empire and their intent; and what McGovern and Binney, as people who were part of these institutions, had demonstrated is that there is no way in our physical universe that 1976 MB of data was moved over the internet. That is, that there was no Russian hack. The only way this amount of data could have been moved was by someone with a storage device that was inserted into the DNC computer. For some reason, there was an agreement between the DNC and Comey of the FBI, that the FBI would never examine this computer. But they would, without having done the examination, they would go ahead and say that this was an act of war. And further, this character Vickers from the Obama administration, went ahead to say that what Russia did on hacking into the elections was tantamount to the 9/11 terror attacks. So, you have that. And I wanted to bring up the latest. Now they just have decided they don’t care what they’re spewing, so now in The Hill newspaper, they have an article "DHS Tells 21 States They Were Russia-Hacking Targets Before the 2016 Election." So, now we’re supposed to believe that 21 states — and of course they say in the article that there’s really no evidence that they succeeded in hacking, or that they changed a single vote. But it’s probably not that long before they say actually it wasn’t just that Russian fake news through Facebook manipulated everyone, but actually they stole the whole election, or they wanted to. It’s just an unbelievable, insane escalation. There is a target in this, which is Robert Mueller, the former head of the FBI, who we know very well; because Mueller personally coordinated the witch hunt against Lyndon LaRouche in Boston in the ’80s. The people who wanted to silence LaRouche — this was probably the biggest crime against our nation that has occurred; because if LaRouche’s policies, which he was outlining in that time, before he was framed up and put in prison, had been implemented, not only would the Berlin Wall have come down in that way, but you would have had spectacular economic collaboration between the East and the West. The United States would never have fallen into this state of disrepair; we probably would have been very close to landing a human being on Mars right now. The world would be a completely different place had that witch hunt not occurred. But that was not enough for Bob Mueller. The next thing which we are taking up is his role in covering up for the Saudi involvement in 9/11. There was a very specific case of the character in San Diego, who had just — and I love the way they tell these things — he "coincidentally" walked into a café, and two of the young men in training to be the hijackers for 9/11 just coincidentally walked into the same café. They sat down and lunch together, and he helped them find an apartment in San Diego. And I think became the conduit for Prince Bandar, who was then the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. If you’re a prince, that does mean you are part of the royal family. I just want to stress that, because they say that the 28 pages show that there’s no involvement of the Saudi royal family. Prince Bandar is a prince in the Saudi family; and he and his wife were conduiting tens of thousands of dollars to the hijackers. So, this guy, who’s clearly key to the San Diego operation, after the 9/11 attacks, in 2002 when Senator Bob Graham and others are trying to investigate what occurred; Mueller personally intervenes to move this person to an undisclosed location so that he cannot be interviewed. That is Bob Mueller. You heard the Congress — "Oh, he’s neutral; he’s so upstanding. He’s such a clean guy, he’s not political. This will be a fair and wonderful investigation." Well, the guy ran the witch hunt of Lyndon LaRouche, and ran the cover for 9/11; and now is using literally Nazi Gestapo tactics to try and bring down the Trump administration, as has been exposed. Including, even as admitted by CNN, that President Trump was correct; Manafort was wiretapped, including in conversations with Trump before and after the elections. That is the context of this, which is why it is so urgent that if we want to not have World War III, and if we want to be able to solve this, we have to destroy this treasonous British Empire-run operation against President Trump. Now the Russians are very clear about the origin and the residue of the Obama administration in this; and I just want to share with you a little bit from Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov, who says "Russian-American relations suffer not only because there are conflicts, but because the previous administration behaved meanly, vindictively, planting a delayed-action mine under Russian-American relations." This was at a press conference. He said, "I did not expect this from a Nobel Peace Prize winner" — that is, Obama — "and it is very bad that the vast potential of our bilateral relations has been mothballed due to the Russophobic hysteria that global issues have suffered since Russia and the U.S. cannot coordinate on the issues." Then he further said he could not believe U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he claimed that he has evidence of Russia’s interference in the U.S. Presidential election. He said, "When I asked Rex Tillerson how his words could be confirmed that Russia’s meddling in the U.S. is well documented, Tillerson said ’I cannot show you anything. It is classified information.’" The Russian Foreign Minister said, "You know I can’t believe this." So, at any rate, he goes on and calls for collaboration in fighting terrorism, etc. Just the last point I want to make, is that the trans-Atlantic financial and economic system is headed for a spectacular blow-out; far worse than 2008. After 2008, we printed money, we did quantitative easing, we did trillions of dollars of nonsense; and nothing was done to change the policies of that system. So what you have today is the same policies, except perhaps more criminal, more shady, more risky with a lot more money sitting in this bloated bubble. This explains both why these people are so desperate to get their wars and to prevent this cooperation and prevent the United States from breaking from the control of this British-run financial empire. But also, underscores that the solution of what Kesha is going to present here in terms of LaRouche’s emergency plan for action is, in a sense as I said to Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche earlier today, it’s a Leibnizian moment. For people who haven’t discovered Leibniz yet, you definitely want to do that. He wrote something called The Best of All Possible Worlds, because the question is, if God is good, does God create evil? Or why does God allow evil to occur if God is really good? Leibniz said it’s because there is no evil that cannot be conquered or overcome by a greater good. What you Shave with these catastrophes is, the only solution is to completely change this rotten, usurious financial system and go back to what Lyndon LaRouche has been promoting and Alexander Hamilton founded as our Treasury Secretary. And, as I said earlier, to work with China, which is the only way we’re going to be able to do this. So, with that, I would like to introduce my colleague Kesha Rogers. People know she was supposed to be here about four weeks ago; and tragedy from Harvey struck her family. Her father and stepmother died in the flood; she was unable to be with us at that point. Now, she has picked up the torch again as the leader that she is, having won two Democratic Party primaries for Congress in Houston on a platform of impeaching Obama and saving NASA. And nearly winning a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in the not-so-distant past. So, Kesha, go ahead. KESHA ROGERS: Thank you Diane. So, I’m very happy to be here with everyone today. I’m proud and happy to be back with you. I think, given what Diane just painted a picture and developed the picture of right now, it really is important to reiterate what Helga LaRouche said today; that there is an utmost urgency for our intervention right now around the world. We can see this from what Diane presented. Before I start, I just wanted to take a personal moment of opportunity to first of all give my deepest gratitude of sincere thanks and gratitude for everyone across the nation — there in New York, across the world — who sent beautiful messages of condolence and support upon the drowning deaths of my father and my stepmother. There was just an abundance of love that has been shown, and that abundance of love has given me much strength to continue to fight. It’s really been heightened by this quality of beauty that you’re seeing emerging from the population right now; in contrast to the ongoing efforts of what Diane reported — the Congress of Cultural Freedom, the policy that has been stated to create ugliness throughout our society, division throughout our society. We saw differently, and that’s been expressed through the power and the beauty of great culture; Classical music, unity, people coming together in a time of despair as never before. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to first of all thank everyone. You have given me much strength, and we must continue to prevail in our efforts to free mankind from this horrific tragedy that’s unfolding. And to bring about a new quality that allows us to elevate people to a higher quality of that which is truly human. We’ve seen reported on numerous occasions the expression of the sublime quality emerging and the spirit of unity that’s been transforming people in the wake of everything that has happened. Just to share, some of you may have seen the report that I sent in that is in the Executive Intelligence Review this week, just a few days in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. I attended an event at Rice University on the 55th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s Moon speech to Rice University, with Astronaut Fred Hayes. You saw how this event brought so many people together, even at a time of just trying to find direction and solutions and meaning. That they can lean back on the vision and the inspiration of President John F Kennedy, as people did at this event. There was another event I had the opportunity shortly after the death of my parents to attend that really inspired me. It was an event at the Miller Outdoor Theater with the Mercury Symphony Orchestra playing music from Bach and Vivaldi and Handel and many other beautiful composers. While at the same time, remembering the unity that brought people together with Harvey, and how human beings were brought together in love for one another, the music was truly inspiring. People were really given hope and inspiration to insure a better future and a more beautiful future in bringing that into existence. You think about that as you see just all across the country. Another expression of this that I was really moved by is what we saw in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Mexico, and gathering of people in Mexico forming human chains to move the debris to rescue people in the aftermath of this devastating earthquake. And as they sang "Cielito Lindo" with the words, "Canta, y no llores"; "Sing, don’t cry." You think about that, while struggling to rescue people from the debris and collapsed buildings. I want you to really think about this as I present this, the message I really want you to take from this is how do we move mankind forward? It’s that spirit of beauty and that which is truly human that is required right now to free mankind from this evil and destruction that has been brought upon us right now. So, we have a mission, as I stated before — and I hold to that — before us which is to transform the whole of mankind right now to this level of what I will develop more, which is the truly sublime which Schiller teaches us. As people know, our organization is the Schiller Institute, founded by Helga LaRouche, and named after the German Poet of Freedom, Friedrich Schiller. Schiller talks about the power of reason prevailing, and that’s what we need right now. Reason must prevail entirely. To go back to developing what Diane has laid out here, as people know, what we’ve seen in Texas, in Florida, in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of us, and the devastation is ongoing. The hurricanes, the massive destruction; this has been a result of an ongoing policy of deliberate negligence — criminal negligence. We have to recognize that. The policy of bailing out Wall Street and financial speculation, the building up of massive debt right now; this is not going to be able to be sustained, as Diane made clear. You have the triggers already being announced that are ready to blow for a total crash right now. I think this is important to take a look at, because you cannot separate what’s happening with these so-called natural disasters, from the ongoing financial disintegration that has been underway. And the lives that were already taken as a result of that. You look at the increased death toll that’s been ongoing; these natural disasters have just heightened that. Because of our inaction, deliberate inaction; failure to take on the enemy at hand in this British Empire. So, you see as a result of that, the increase — as we’ve already reported — of the suicide rates, the drug overdoses, the infant mortality rates; we can continue to go on, but we know that we can’t deny this reality. So, you look at the fact that we’ve accepted that in society; we’ve accepted these bail-outs and allowed for our politicians to choose not to act deliberately. They may not say that, but that is what they have done. But what we should have done instead, is to put forth the solutions that were so urgently needed — building our flood-control systems. Brian Lantz, my colleague here, has gone through a number of presentations detailing what was already in place, $25 billion to build up the flood control systems here in Texas. We chose not to do this, because instead, we chose to go with a monetarist policy to put people, human life last, and to instead think about our monetary profits. And so, you think about this from the standpoint, of we had chosen to continue the vision of President John F. Kennedy, building flood-control systems, weather satellite systems, continuing to increase our development of our space program, where would we be instead? And what we have to realize is that we have allowed for a decades-long economic collapse, giving into policies of austerity. The question now is what is the fate of mankind if we do not now take the emergency action that’s needed? That Lyndon LaRouche has put forth so clearly as the alternative to free mankind, from this disaster, from this tragedy. Once again, we’ve seen enormous, unnecessary destruction of life. And as is stated before, this destruction could be even greater because the failure right now for each and every one of us — and one thing President Trump said in his UN speech, is he reiterated going back to the principles and the foundation of our Constitution, on the 230th anniversary of our Constitution, "We, the People..." So that is the principle that we must hold to, and realize that we, the people must not succumb to the evils of an empire. We’re not slaves, and we have to reverse what has been happening in our society. And we can see that we have potential, that is emerging around the world to do this, to look at a better side of our human nature, both in the expression of what we’ve seen in the aftermath of these disasters, but also what we see as the emerging new paradigm that’s happening throughout the world, with China, and Russia and other nations joining in their lead, with a new conception of what is the true nature of mankind to advance? We realize that there are solutions available and we have a chance right now to, as I would say, to right the wrongs that have been done against our society, and we have an opportunity to act now as a nation. Our mission right now is to ensure that those who have died, those who have sacrificed their lives have not done so in vain, that there is a way to the future for mankind, that is now on the verge of emerging, and we see this potential. And that is the power, as I’ve stated, that lies in the new paradigm now emerging with the Belt and Road Initiative, that has been the ongoing fight and identity of Lyndon and Helga LaRouche. That is what we saw as the potential within President Trump’s speech. But that’s only going to happen when we decide to recognize that you can not have a system of evil, of empire, existing at the same time as you have a system that looks at the truly creative mutual benefit for mankind. As people there know, and have been continuing to go out and organize, nonstop, around LaRouche’s emergency solution, in the aftermath of Harvey, going into Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Lyndon LaRouche presented a very profound statement of action and solution. And this is what is needed right now. And I want to say, just think about what your responsibility is: This is not just something that we can take lightly, or say, that we’re going back to business as usual, trying to establish a norm, because the norm in society is what has gotten us into this crisis in the first place, going along with the norm. We have to create a total transformation of mankind right now, there’s no more room for going with the norm. This is how we think about Lyndon LaRouche’s Emergency Action Plan and the Four Laws. We cannot think about it as "I tried to go and coerce and convince my Congress member; I tried to go and do something." It’s a question of we have to have the action now that’s going to save these lives. And you have to think about LaRouche’s solutions from the standpoint of your commitment to human life, and to the advancement of mankind. You take the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt, beautifully expressed in LaRouche’s Action Plan and his Four Laws, where Roosevelt called "Action, and action now." That’s what we need today. The solutions are very clear: You’re not going to create the changes that are needed by continuing to go along with the failed financial and economic system that’s in place. It’s only going to be through a national credit system, and though examples such as Franklin Roosevelt’s Tennessee Valley Authority, through the Reconstruction Finance Corp.; which very interestingly, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, was one of the Houston Chronicle articles that came out calling for the reemergence of Jesse Jones’ Reconstruction Finance Corp.-type operation, which is needed for the country. We have to have a national interest in terms of creating the national credit to rebuild and to create new platforms of economic development. This is what we’re seeing right now, that is absolutely critical to building up the economic platforms to advance mankind. That reiterates very strongly that it is time for the United States to join in the new paradigm that’s emerging. That’s the way we’re going to accomplish the goal and the solutions that are before us. To take, on the other hand, the capitulation to the policies of evil and of the British Empire has resulted in the continued failure of the understanding of human beings as absolutely distinct from animals. This is what Lyndon LaRouche has clearly identified himself with, this fight to educate mankind in understanding what is the unique nature of our species, or human beings to fulfill our obligations to continue to advance mankind, not to be put under the will and might of that which is evil. This view of mankind is shared by the most beautiful minds of Lyndon LaRouche and Helga LaRouche, and it’s an expression that Schiller clearly identified as he states. And many people know of Schiller speaking of the idea that "No man must ’must.’" You’ve heard that many times, that man is the being who wills. How do we think about that, in the context of the message that Schiller is teaching us today? And you think about that in the context of how we’re thinking about the continued devastation of these earthquakes and hurricanes, these seismic and solar/ galactic activity that we’re seeing right now, these disasters that are happening? Is it the ability of mankind to defend Earth against such disasters? It is. Ben already went through this, and we will continue to have more: We have the means, scientifically, to disrupt hurricane cycles, to put forth early warning detection systems for earthquakes; that has been developed, it can be further developed. Why have we not done that? And to know that mankind doesn’t have to be at the mercy of nature, it’s really mankind not recognizing his relationship to the Solar System or not understanding that if we don’t take dominion and control of nature, nature takes control of us. That’s what we’re seeing right now. So we can learn the lessons that are taught to us, in that aspect, from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee River system and how we actually took control of what that we thought was completely dominating of mankind and a bestial force of nature; but human beings prevailed. From that standpoint I wanted to make the contrast between the environmentalist policy of today, where it’s anti-human policy of so-called conservationism and the policy that human beings are not at the center of the progress of our ecological system, and the progress of our Solar System and our Galaxy and doesn’t recognize the relationship of mankind to the Galaxy. But you take this in contrast to President John F. Kennedy speech and to the beautiful that he gave on conservation and water resources. He says, "Our nation’s progress is reflected in the history of our river systems. The water that courses through our rivers and streams holds the key to full national development. Uncontrolled, it wipes out homes, lives and dreams, bringing disaster in the form of floods; controlled, it is an effective artery of transportation, a boon to industrial development, a source of beauty and recreation, and the means for turning arid areas into rich and versatile cropland." This is the idea of mankind transforming his relationship to nature. I think that message from President John F. Kennedy is so beautiful, how we think about the idea of conserving — really, the idea in Genesis I, of mankind’s mission of subduing, and replenishing the Earth: That’s how you do it. You create that which is beautiful out of something that you think is a total disaster that mankind has no control over, which is absolutely not true. Many people as has been reiterated by Diane and in the message from Matt last night, when you go back to the UN speech of President Trump, and think about this from the standpoint of the message of national defense and national sovereignty, and the mutual benefit of all nations through peace and development. That being expressed at the same time as here in this contradictory message, calling for overthrowing leaders and regime-change, you think about this — the call to conquer enemies, as opposed to what he made clear in terms of a really human intention, which is to seek allies to befriend, and not enemies to conquer. Now, you ask yourself: Can such a beautiful conception of mankind and of cooperation emerge and be realized, at the same time as making compromises with destructive forces, and again, that expresses our responsibility right now to put an end to this imperial system, to put an end to this what we’re seeing as the attack on what is the true potential of mankind to emerge, of unity, of the beauty of mankind. And as should be clear, you cannot have two systems as Henry Carey in his Harmony of Interests expressed. You cannot have two systems before the world existing simultaneously at the same time. That’s why our mission right now is to wipe out that system which opposes the true potential of mankind as in the image of God, in the image of the Creator. We have to understand that the victory of the whole of mankind will only be won when we act with total reason, and act for the good of all mankind. It’s clear that the United States has no other choice except to join this emerging paradigm that’s under way right now, for mutual development and peace. We must end this long policy of wars, of regime-change, of economic collapse. As we refer back to the inspiration from Friedrich Schiller, he states, "Everything sublime derives only from reason." In other words, action cannot be a result of the instinct or the sensual pleasure; and he says, "every natural being under the rule of instinct, is called animal." That’s not what our being is; human beings are not animals, we do not act under the rule of instinct, we act through reason. Lastly, just to reiterate: LaRouche’s solutions are the key to lift mankind out of the depths of despair, to bring about the needed economic recovery, that is going to transform our relationship to the Solar System, to the Galaxy, and to nature as a whole. And the good and the reason of mankind has to fully emerge; we have to get an understanding of that: That mankind is a reasoning being. We see this right now, as you look at the development happening around the world, when nobody thought that Africa would be lifted out of the depths of despair — what is China doing? Working together in mutual benefit with Africa, with South and Central America, building transportation systems, rail systems, building those things that help to elevate, and uplift and transform mankind. Why are we not doing that today? Why have we instead, chosen to put human life last? The economic solutions are there. We have to fully commit ourselves to the implementation of these solutions, and, as I said before, ensure that those who have died, have not died in vain. And we have to ensure that we bring about something which is sublime, to produce that from that which is terrible. This is Schiller’s conception of totally transforming mankind and emerging in mankind, the ability of bringing forth the good. It really falls in line with what Diane stated at the end, of the principle of Leibniz. Schiller and Leibniz come together on this conception, that there actually can be beauty that emerges out of tragedy, and that’s what we’re responsible for bringing about. That is our mission today, to bring about the beauty and to ensure that the tragedy doesn’t continue to dominate our society, and dominate against the progress of mankind. In conclusion, I think it’s fitting to take a great inspirational example, as I started in the beginning, about the power and the beauty of music, uniting and transforming people. Beethoven talks about his passion and love for Schiller and Goethe, and some of the greatest inspirations of Classical poetry, art and music in uniting the idea of the reasoning of mankind and truth in the sublime; in a book compiled on his thinking and writings, Beethoven Speaks: The Man and the Artist in His Own Words, he says: "Let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be attained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which a gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn, for, ’life is short, art eternal.’" I think that’s what we always have to remember, that as long as we immerse ourselves in the beauty of mankind and to fight to continue to develop that higher quality of man, then no matter what we go through in life, we will always be able to continue to have the strength to fight, and to ensure that mankind and progress of mankind prevails. So I think this is a very important message. I’d like to end it with that, and say we can take up other discussion and thoughts you may have. But as I said, the question is, what quality of man, of human beings, has to emerge right now in this moment we find ourselves, in this historic moment: How will we choose to act. So thank you, Diane for inviting me today, and thank you all for being there. [applause] Q: Hi Kesha, it’s Daniel [burke], here. Thank you very much. Thank you for the provoking comments today. I was trying to think a little bit about what was going on with his speech, with Trump, to return to that topic. It’s really very important that there’s a truthful understanding of what national sovereignty represents. Lyndon LaRouche has said, the concept of national sovereignty is identical to the concept of the commonwealth, of the general welfare, which is intrinsically linked to this concept, which didn’t exist before the 15th century Renaissance. But you cannot have a common welfare if you serve both God and Mammon; you cannot have a common welfare if you conceive of "I want to do what’s good for the population, but I also want to do what’s good for Wall Street." It doesn’t exist; it’s impossible to do that. And it seems to me that a lot of the various ideologues, including Steve Bannon, for example, but also people who are associated with Henry Kissinger; like a few months ago, I saw a man named Graham Allison speak, who’s become well-known for writing about the "Thucydides trap"; and these are people who claim that they want some sort of progress for the United States, but their concept of sovereignty is tied up in the idea of basically going back to the Cold War. There’s some kind of fascination with some kind of fantastical, powerful U.S. and righteous United States in the Cold War, that’s my impression, or at least the one that I’m left with. Like, for example, Bannon saying, OK, it’s going to be Judeo-Christianity versus Confucianism. So whatever concept of sovereignty they have is flawed, at least in these ways. And I think what you presented today, puts it in the proper terms, which is namely — because Mr. LaRouche has, in addition to defending this principle of sovereignty, he’s actually gone beyond it, and said we need to go beyond national sovereignty, to something greater. As you said, we need to replace this imperial system and eliminate forever. And it does seem to me that that begs the question of the commonwealth of the Galaxy: That when people are thinking about a unity of our system, as humanity, we can’t just think of our planet, or nations on the planet, or something limited in that respect. So I’m provoked to think in that direction by what you’re saying. And what I would hope, is that what I think we might want to do, is this week, when we return to the United Nations General Assembly with our demonstrations, is attempt to present to the people there, what national sovereignty really and truly is, and what it would mean today; including the obvious point, that if Trump really wants to assert national sovereignty for the United States, the first thing he can do is get the Four Laws going; is get Hamiltonian credit so we have control over that ability to provide for our general welfare. ROGERS: Hear, hear. Yes. On that point, I think just to reiterate, again, you cannot have a society — and this is what people have conditioned themselves to believe, is that you can have a society, you can have mankind existing at the same time as having the two systems that Carey presented before the world at the same time. And we have taught ourselves that this can actually continue to go on, that you can live with a system of Empire, as you can at the same time with a system of the idea of the American system or national sovereignty. But I think it’s better expressed in what Lincoln said, that you can’t have a society half-slave and half-free. And we’re realizing that right now, but for far too long, and we’ve seen what the breakdown of the system, to try to placate and capitulate to Wall Street and the bail-out policy; what has that gotten us? It has been the destruction of the people of this planet. It’s been the destruction of what we’ve seen as the collapse of the entire U.S. and trans-Atlantic financial system. It’s been made very clear that the options are off the table for having these two systems exist, and capitulating to that. And we have to make very clear, what are we going to join? What is going to be the mission that we take up in terms of recognizing, we can’t live in a society that condone Empire, that condones enslavement of mankind; that condones continuation of bailing out a bankrupt financial system, while killing off your population and creating austerity. But I think the point that you make in terms of looking at this not just as a localized effort of Earth, and processes on Earth and human relations on Earth; but it’s really when we come to understand our relationship to the Galaxy: What does it actually mean to have nations to go out, Russia, China, India, U.S., all of these nations to go out and explore and develop the entirety of our Solar System? What is the idea of national sovereignty that comes about there? It completely is transformed. Q: Hi Kesha, it’s John Sigerson with the Schiller Institute. I’d just like to point out one thing about what you said, which I think is wonderful. Your work, your struggle to express what is ultimately inexpressible directly, but which has to be understood indirectly. But I want to point out one, which might be a detail, but it’s a very interesting one: The term, "No man must ’must’" actually doesn’t come from Schiller. It comes from a very close associate of Schiller’s — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who was likewise a total revolutionary who wrote this wonderful play, in 1779, right in the middle of the American Revolution, called Nathan the Wise. And those words come from the mouth of Nathan the Wise, who is a Jew, who is in the Middle East, and who is working on uniting the three great religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and the entire play is about that. And this particular time when he says this, is because he has a friend named Al-Hafi, who is a religious man, a Dervish; who has been in touch with Saladin, the great Arab leader, and Saladin has just appointed this Dervish, this religious man, as the treasurer of this empire. And he’s completely freaked out. And this is what Nathan says: Well, you don’t have to follow exactly the letter of your religion. That’s what he’s saying about "no man must ’must’"; you don’t need to follow the specific vows, the specific box that you’re in, in this case, the particular tenets of his religion. And so therefore, he’s encouraging him to do that, which also is a way of saying that there’s a complete connection between faith and economics, because that’s what he’s bringing up. And that’s exactly the point that’s made so strongly today, that economics and morality, and science, has everything to do with the same idea that we’re getting at here. It struck me that some of these right-wing ideologues — I was reading a few things, from these Milton Friedman types, were talking about price gouging, and talking about the fact that there’s a lot of price gouging going on in your area — if you want to say something about that; and they were arguing, saying, "no, no, this isn’t price gouging, this is just the normal operations of the market. You know, there’s supply, and there’s not enough supply, so therefore you should just raise the prices. After all, there’s nothing wrong with that!" Even though people are starving or people are in desperate need of help, "well, that doesn’t matter." And that’s precisely the kind of mentality that I think, especially in the course of these incredible events that are just occurring, that is breaking through that insane mentality. I’ll just point out one other thing which is another thing that I just brought up with Lyndon LaRouche quite a number of weeks ago, when he was on with one of our meetings, when I was asking him about the function that, what happens in a healthy society that you need a kind of militaristic goal for the good; and you actually do need military, you don’t want to just sort of let everything down. And Lyndon LaRouche said very specifically, that the appropriate goal for the military type of deployments is to help people in times of distress. And if you have anything to say about the role of the military in the present situation, that would be very good, because I think that, OK, we’re spending all this money on the military defense, let’s put into actually rebuilding rather than doing all these other crazy things. Thank you. ROGERS: Right. First of all, I want to thank you because I think that expression of the spiritual quality cannot be a missing aspect and that, in combination with a unity of economics and science as you’ve expressed it, is very important to understanding the message that Schiller was saying, and the history behind that. But also, you just look at that from the expression of what it teaches us in terms of our ability, not just to coexist on Earth, but that mankind has an obligation to act as every single person, no matter what your ethnicity, background, religious experience or so forth, that there’s something that unites us. And that is that we are all created in the image of a Creator, and how do you express that quality in everything you do. That just came to mind as you were talking. I think also what you’re seeing, there was a report written by one of my colleagues here, Dan Leach, on a "Moment of the Sublime" and you’d think about that as we talking about how you actually build out of this disaster, and how do you put forward the economic platforms that’s needed, that — it’s true, going back to your question about the military and the involvement. You know, I saw a guy on the street the other day who was an Afghan vet, with one leg amputated, sitting on the side of the street, saying "Waiting on my Veterans Affairs to get me a leg, and I need help otherwise," and asking for money. And I’m just thinking about, we put so much money into having these young people, men and women go over and risk their lives in wars, to protect drug cartels’ opium crops, and to continue to push a policy that is sending people home to lack of hope and lack of security; but what can we be doing to make sure, what we saw in terms the potential that’s there for having these people in the military be able to be right at the forefront of rebuilding our national and developing our national infrastructure; giving them something that they can be proud of? And what we did with the TVA and what we did with various other development projects throughout our nation? That’s what we need right now: We need to have our military here, secure and actually fighting in the interests of the country, to rebuild the country, in the aftermath of these disasters. We need to have them in Puerto Rico, and Florida, in Texas, and throughout the country. But at the same time, we saw this expression of people risking their lives, as we reported, coming together for the good of others, going out there to save people, and as beautiful as that was, the idea that we could have had the military and others in place to build up the capabilities economically of the nation, the physical economic capabilities, that was deliberately missing. And we have to reverse that. So, I think that we’ve been taught and the lesson is, that we have, as I said, we have to put the economic advancement of people, first, and that’s how you’re going to end this policy of war, of regime change, of destruction, through knowing that every single person throughout the planet, no matter what part of the planet you’re in, you’re going to advance through economic development; and that war is not the direction that we should go on. And we could be putting our human beings to better use in terms of their creative abilities, than to have them destroyed in these godawful way that we’re seeing right now. Q: Hi, it’s Michelle Fuchs with the Manhattan Project, here. Hi Kesha. I want to report on some of our activities of the last week, and partly as a plug for anyone in this room, or outside of this room, who might be considering whether they want to come out and campaign with us in the streets, around the United Nations, or wherever you are, that what we’re doing out there is very important. On Monday of this past week, we had a rally at the United Nations, where in addition to our themes of the United States joining the Silk Road, we had incorporated the need to end the Saudi war of genocide against the people of Yemen. We had campaign signs up that said "Stop the Saudi War against Yemen." We handed out thousands of flyers, like this one, "Enemy of New Silk Road Paradigm — Saudi Genocide in Yemen," and we were discussing with people this process, where the United States is actually supporting this war! We’re refueling Saudi jets between bombing runs, where it’s documented they’re just as interested, if not more interested, in bombing hospitals and schools and sites of historical artifacts of that people, than they are of military sites. And creating massive havoc, death, and death of children through undernourishment, hunger, because the ports are blockaded and you can’t get in with emergency supplies. And the United States is supporting this effort! So we were out there doing this, but what we do is very well seen. We did put up a little video on the internet, which helps, utilizing these resources: Lynne Speed and I filmed this report. That evening we got a note of thanks from our friend in Yemen, who had come across our work on the New Silk Road some years ago, help provoke our translating our Silk Road report ["The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge"] into Arabic, and helped promote the idea of bringing Yemen into the Silk Road, in Yemen, that that discussion in conferences and classes, even as this war was under way. The following day, I think it was Tuesday, there was a note sent in from the Foreign Minister of Yemen — a note of gratitude to Helga Zepp-LaRouche and to all members of the international LaRouche movement, expressing gratitude for the campaign they have been waging to stop the war of aggression against Yemen, and calling for integrating Yemen into the New Silk Road paradigm. And I’m just going to read a couple of sentences of this note "To the honored friend Helga LaRouche, Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, The New Silk Road Lady, Subject: Gratitude for your international campaign to stop the aggression against Yemen, to support the Yemen people’s right to development. "It is my pleasure to express, in this my second letter to you..." he details the first one "my appreciation to your personal, and the International Schiller Institute’s, stances and great efforts exerted in Berlin, and those of the LaRouche Movement in Washington, to make Yemen a pearl in the necklace of the New Silk Road, as you mention in your literature. "I received with great gratitude your special statement which calls for establishing an international commission to investigate the violations committed by the Saudi aggressors against our people, and also the six-point appeal to stop the aggression immediately, lifting the blockade imposed from the sea, air and land, and moving towards reconstruction, development along the New Silk Road as a means to restart the national dialogue which was interrupted by the ugly war of aggression. "We in the Republic of Yemen have also followed with great interest the Xiamen BRICS Plus summit and the vision embedded in its declarations. We have also followed the events launched by your movement, starting in Berlin where your Vice-Chairwoman Mrs. Elke Fimmen addressed the public in a Berlin square, and Mr. Ulf Sandmark who spoke at the Human Rights Commission’s sessions in Geneva, and Mr. Jason Ross and his colleague Matthew Ogden in the LaRouche PAC [webcast], and all LaRouche activists around the world. "We were deeply moved by the site of the two courageous ladies Michelle Fuchs and Lynne Speed as they were distributing thousands of leaflets" — it wasn’t just us, there were others — "in the streets of New York in front of the UN General Assembly headquarters, these leaflets that convey the aspirations of the people of Yemen to live in peace and prosperity which is identical to the true American dream of peace and human development. They stood in stark contrast to those who sold their conscience and made human mind and blood the least worthy thing. We assure you and those who stand in the streets of New York like Michelle and Lynne, of our full support and solidarity with the families of the victims of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack, until the culprits and masterminds behind it are brought to the court of justice to receive their deterrent punishment. "Finally, I convey to you the greetings of the peace-loving Yemeni people, and assure you that Yemen is planning to become an active component in the vision and the steps of building the New Silk Road to establish world peace. We will be a key global partner to accomplish the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. "Until we meet sometime soon, accept my most sincere regards. "Eng. Hisham Sharaf, "Foreign Minister "Sana’a, Yemen" I’ll add one more comment, which is that on Monday morning, there will be introduced into the U.S. Congress a resolution where they’re hoping to force it to a vote immediately by invoking the War Powers Resolution to stop U.S. support for this war, being introduced by Representatives Walter Jones, Khanna, and Pocan. You can contact your LaRouche PAC people to get the details on that. I did call my congressman on that, Friday morning, and got an email back about anything but Yemen. So I will be calling back on Monday, to make more clear what I was calling about in the first place. [applause] ROGERS: Good, thank you. Q: It’s Allen with LaRouche PAC. I don’t have it completely composed, it’s kind of been a process just in reference to the fact that Columbus Day is coming up, in October and there’s been a real nasty intent to take down Columbus, not just as a statue, but as the idea of the extension of the Renaissance, and just in line with what you’ve been bringing up on your presentation with the question of the principle of progress. It’s not just to take on Columbus, but it’s to take on the entire principle of progress. There’s been an open letter to Donald Trump that was put together by Liliana Gorini, who’s the chairwoman of the Movisol movement in Italy, the LaRouche movement there. [http://movisol.org/gorini-giu-le-mani-da-cristoforo-colombo/] And we basically want to get this all over, and what I’ve been doing is taking this and putting it on various groups that I’ve been a part of for a few years, since we started the defense of Columbus Day a couple years ago; and he actually wrote his own leaflet on defense of Columbus Day, and since then it’s been under more and more attack. In fact, 40 cities, including Los Angeles, since 2014, have replaced Columbus Day with "Indigenous People’s Day" whatever that means. And also three states as well. So the idea is this is not just an attack on Columbus, it’s an attack on the founding of the United States, which is an outgrowth of the Italian Renaissance. I would just put it that way, and either you have thoughts on it, or other people as well. SPEED: Diane wanted to say something. SARE: I just wanted to say that people who want to get rid of Columbus Day should march off the edge of the Flat Earth. [laughter] I mean it really is an attack on science and the true history of discovery, and it is an attack on Joan of Arc and Nicholas of Cusa, and the necessity of establishing a government, which our United States ever became. So I’m standing by that: Anyone who wants to get rid of the holiday should march off the planet. ROGERS: We have a similar thing here, as you say, we see it all over the country. And this has been part of the educational process; that’s what the teaching in history is, the whole idea. First of all you have the teaching in history about the indigenous people, and how Christopher Columbus was sent to destroy them and basically take away the rights of the Indians and so forth; but it just shows you how, that’s another division of human beings, not actually taking up this higher quality of discovery, the principle of scientific method of discovery, what makes us human. We have something similar here in Austin, where every year people do a march to the capital to protest Christopher Columbus. But I think your point is right, they’re not just protesting a statue, or protesting the individual, but they’re protesting what is that quality of mankind that is creative, that truly unites us; and the discovery process of Christopher Columbus, going back to the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa. And you look at this also in the context of how people think about, for example, Abraham Lincoln: The education system teaches people, "well, Lincoln was never opposed to slavery," and they certain aspects and try to create this as truth in our education system, which is not true whatsoever. That is his identity is that he was more for Union than he was to actually end slavery: But without the Union you were not going to end slavery! So I think it shows how miseducated and how much the Empire, the enemy have tried to dominate and control and keep people backwards and enslaved. And that goes against the principles of what Lincoln and Columbus, and what other great minds have represented. So I think I agree with Diane — you still have those people out there, there’s big groups out there who believe that the Earth is flat. This are the same people who disregard Columbus. SPEED: Let me just report to people the following, that’s reported in the Daily Caller: "Military Antifa Group Announces Nationwide ’Deface Columbus’ Day." "Following multiple acts of vandalism on Christopher Columbus statues since August, a militant antifa group has announced ’Deface Columbus Day’ on Oct. 9 as a coordinated campaign to deface and destroy more historical monuments...." It reports about the Yonkers case, where a Columbus status was beheaded on Aug. 30, and says, "Antifa vandals were also responsible for the destruction of the oldest Christopher Columbus monument in the nation on Aug. 21.... "On Sept. 20, a New York City-based antifa organization calling itself Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement put out a press release on far-left extremist websites" calling for this. So just so people are clear, this is part of the antifa campaign — and it’s more than that; we won’t take a lot of time right now on this. It will end up being a Soros-network-originated operation, is what this is going to be. And there are ways in which we will counter this, which we don’t need to go through now, but I think it’s useful to recognize this practice. The other element is that the name "Columbus," when you talk about America, always means "America." It’s just like Amerigo Vespucci: Columbus as in "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"; or as in Columbia University; or as the city of Columbus, that’s what you’re talking about. So the term "Columbus" means "America," and that’s actually what’s being attacked. So we should just be aware that this is part of the same thing we saw in Charlottesville and not have any illusion that it’s part of something else. Q: Hi Kesha, this is Eugene from the Bronx, New York. I would like to ask you whatever happened to the Tea Party? You never hear from them, they’re not in the news; have they been disbanded, or dissolved? And if they would be in existence now would they agree with Lyndon LaRouche, with the Silk Road, with cooperation with Russia and China and the BRICS nations? ROGERS: Well, Diane’s been doing quite a bit of work on that aspect, so she might be able to address that also. Just think about what you saw with President Trump’s election, that all of these groups, particularly some of the Tea Party apparatus, some of the blue-collar Democrats, and you saw a uniting of people that went against the party politics, that came out in a different form. As far as your question about the Tea Party, I think what we’re looking at, is when people choose to compromise, when people don’t go fully for taking on the enemy at hand, and you’ve seen this on a lot of different occasions, where you have an intention to maybe do good, or you take on a certain issue, or a certain problem in society, but you don’t actually put forth solutions that are needed. And the only organization that has truly held to their principles for fighting nonstop for the needed economic solutions for this nation and for this planet has been what the LaRouche movement has done. I think that’s what you recognize, and why you’re here. You can get some interesting developments and fight from these other organizations, but even as we’re saying, with the Tea Party groups and Bernie Sanders groups and so forth, it’s been our going in and challenging and transforming these organizations that they have to fight on the principle of truth and not compromise. And so I think that’s the problem you’re running into, is that people want to succumb to their own fears or to compromise against what they know has to be done, or they know is right. And that’s how you allow for the enemy to come in and intervene and to destroy the better potential that these organizations could represent. So we’re still going out there, as you know, every single day, and we’re organizing Trump supporters and Tea Party supporters, and Bernie Sanders supporters and so forth; and uniting the best of all of what is represented in these organizations, to bring them to a higher idea of the solutions are the most important right now. So I think that’s what we have to think about in that context. SARE: Eugene, I’d like to add something to that. I think it’s worth remembering that the Tea Party came into existence around the first bail-out. And I’m not sure that everyone in the Tea Party is as cognizant of that as they should be at this moment, because we are about to see the second shoe dropping. And what I would say is, that what Kesha has just mentioned about the Bernie Sanders supporters and the Tea Party, is that they agree on the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, there is an agreement of Wall Street as the enemy, but where both sides fall short is on Lyndon LaRouche’s unique contribution to the science of physical economy, which is, the nature of man: That the source of wealth has nothing to do with money and cannot be measured in standards of money. So whether you want to have great rage at the amount of money that Wall Street is getting, or the amount of money that you are not getting; or the outrageous what they call "income disparity," where eight people or something have as much "wealth" (however that’s measured) as 300 billion other people — this all misses the point. Which is that the driver of actual wealth, which is not measured in monetary terms but is measured in the potential for every human being to be fully creative, and to develop their unique talents and quality of genius, that this is the sacred mission of a government to develop. And therefore, I think we can pull all of this together on a much higher standard, with that as the measure of wealth and progress, and that is what we have to do now; especially with this impending blowout which is the elephant in the room, so to speak, or the massive backdrop against which all of this is occurring. Q: I just wanted to say, that recently our Schiller Institute was engaging in promoting the idea of Puerto Rico joining the Maritime Silk Road. This was done at an event, of the annual Puerto Rican diaspora summit, that happened in Harlem earlier this year, and we were really pushing the idea of Glass-Steagall, Glass-Steagall, this is how you got to start. And at the time, we were inviting people to our concert at Carnegie Hall, so we were the Schiller Institute, we’re for policy, but this is how we’re going to make it happen, through ideas, beauty, that’s how you’re going to educate people; and then we marched in the Puerto Rican parade in the Bronx and we made the Maritime Silk Road the center of our theme; and this is just the sign: You could see we have a map of the Caribbean, with Puerto Rico, and it says, "Join the Maritime Silk Road." And people were really reading the sign, they were interested, they were impressed. We were the only ones talking about real policy. And the reason I bring this up is because back then it was a real fight to get people to think; people were thinking too local, and it was fight to get them to think on a grand scale, that Puerto Rico could be part of a global policy, that it’s not just a piece of "territory" as they call it. And now, as we’re beginning to engage in the process of recontacting these networks, I have been calling some of them back, just so we can give them a sense of how this can really change. Can you tell us about the process, if there is one under way already, of getting people to think on a national, or international policy? For example, like people have suffered a lot in Houston, they lost everything, you said the sewage is worse than Florida. You had a tragedy, and you’re continuing to fight for the higher mission; you’re here with us today. Are there other networks, or legislators, or what’s happening out there, if there is any that’s getting people to think? How do we solve this for the nation, not just Houston, not just Texas, but what José V. said on a conference call: We’ve got to think not just crisis to crisis, like "our situation," but how do we think to prevent this for the future? Because this is going to be needed to give to the people in Puerto Rico, to get them to think. Is this going to be their wakeup call, or are they going to miss the wakeup call? ROGERS: Mm-hmm, yeah. I think that’s the challenge, and that’s the mission before us right now, is to get people to think outside of the smallness or just the disunity of the nation. And the reality is first and foremost, we have to realize that without a total overhaul of this bankrupt financial system, there is nothing that’s going to be done to save any individual state or territory. I think it’s also been a result of criminal negligence and the disregard for human life and our own, when we think about the situation with Puerto Rico: We’ve been knowing the continued physical economic devastation and the financial collapse that has wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, and this is part of our nation! Our territory. I think at one point in time we were actually discussing — earlier, Lyn may have even suggested the idea of having Puerto Rico becoming a fully integrated state. And we would have a real responsibility to Puerto Rico, but it just gives the example again, we knew that when we didn’t put forth Glass-Steagall, and you had the Puerto Rico financial and banking collapse that has been ongoing, which is a mirror up to the entire collapse of financial system for the whole country, and now you see the devastation, 3 million-plus people without electricity, and what’s going on. This cannot be seen as "well, that’s your problem over there; Texas, that’s your problem; Florida, that’s your problem." As you’re saying, the only solution is to unite. Mankind uniting this nation with the paradigm that’s emerging right now, with cooperation with Russia, with China, and with other nations around the world. That the United States must come together with them as a one. So there’s no local solutions whatsoever. The solution is Wall Street has to be destroyed, has to be wiped out, and the people have to be put first, in all efforts, on all fronts. And that means we’ve got to start building, creating the ability for people to live in harmony, through advanced economic development. We can’t leave Puerto Rico behind as the "red-headed stepchild" or something, "well, we’re not going to deal with you." And that’s our responsibility for our relationship to our own, and also our relationship to other nations. That’s what you’re seeing right now in Haiti, in the devastation there, and throughout the Caribbean. The only solution is to destroy that financial system of continuing to bail-out Wall Street and the speculation, and to put forth Lyndon LaRouche’s important and profound solutions that he’s already laid out. I think that’s the key right now, and as Helga said, "our intervention is of the utmost importance right now." Q: [follow-up] This is just an add-on. This is forcing certain ideas to come, like people talking about the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and FDR ideas of government; we need government, people are looking more into the Preamble of the Constitution, and what was the concept behind it. This is definitely something that could bring in LaRouche’s Four Laws out into the open, and say we need this now. And then we can give this report to those people — what you’re doing, what other people are doing, and what they should be doing. Because people fall into this small groups, "I’m going to join all these different groups and we’re get clothes and money," but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have electricity. SPEED: We’re going to take these final two questions and, get a couple of remarks from Elliot and then that’ll be our close. Q: I’m Jane from New York. My condolences to you in Houston; I have a sister living in Dallas. I’ve been doing some street deployments, and I’ve been finding it most inspiring, in terms of giving me the opportunity to really live the history and the civics that I had learned in the past, but also the wonderful lessons that Diane and Dennis and Michelle, — and you — so poignantly share with us. And I find it helps me in going to talk to people, and I encounter people that are Russian, and I say, "You know what? We really don’t want to go to war with you. Certainly not everybody wants to go to war with you." And the German kids were here for a holiday: "Oh, we have a connection in Germany! One of our LaRouche people there is an important leader in our movement." But also what I wanted to say, it helps clarify my own conflicts, but also those that I have with dear friends who have been very conservative, but also good souls; or, very liberal, and also good souls, in how to parse the argument (I hate to say argument, but I guess it is argument), where we differ and how we are falling into that state of bankruptcy that you just commented on with Sylvia. I don’t know what you might add to that, but you share so much, and I’m touched by what you have to say. And, deployments do help oneself! Not just spread the word, — not to be disseminators, or publicists, but also enliven what we’re all about. ROGERS: Yeah. That’s absolutely true. On the phones, talking to people, going out, educating people, and having a sense that you’re not just out to express "information" to people, but you’re trying to transform people in their understanding of what is the quality of man that has to emerge? What’s our understanding of what economics really is. And I think you coming to these meetings, and also everyone else there, and you look at these classes and these discussions, is to bring out that quality of thought process which gives us the understanding of how we go out and educate, and fight with people against how they have been conditioned to go along with popular opinion, and to think wrongly. And so I think also, just to make a plug there, from what you’re saying, I know that the Basement, the science team is going to be starting a series — and more will come out on this — of economics classes on LaRouche’s economics on LaRouche’s science of physical economy, and going back to what a lot of these other groups have failed to grasp and take up, is, what is the nature of mankind, in relationship to our universe? And the spirit and the power of mankind as understood in the creative conception of human beings as that which is different from the animal. And so you can’t talk about economics without that identity and conception. And so, getting more people, younger people especially, too, to come and participate in this educational process, because the younger generation has been absolutely destroyed; and again, that’s because of the criminal negligence of going along with the policies that have dominated for the past 50 years. And we have to reverse that. Q: Fred from Yonkers, New York. I have one comment and a question. The comment is in regards to the Tea Party Patriots have a rally today in Washington, D.C., so they are out there, and they are doing something. You can go to their website and look up what they did today. My question is: Is, if the little Rocket-man were to release a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean, what do you suppose that President Trump should do about that? ROGERS: If the who? Q: [follow-up] The little Rocket-man. ROGERS: You’re talking about Kim Jong-un, North Korea? First of all, I don’t think he’s going to do that. Q: I don’t either, but... ROGERS: I don’t think he’s going to do that, because as already been stated, and Diane made this point earlier, North Korean President Kim Jong-un knows that launching a nuclear missile to hit Guam or San Francisco or anywhere else, is going to mean the annihilation of mankind on the planet, because it’s not going to come without reaction. And so you’re going to have total nuclear warfare. The only people that really want that is the British Empire: They’re willing to destroy mankind and themselves and everybody else. And so if we fight with the positive solution, that, as Trump said, the idea of what Matt brought up of John Quincy Adams of not going out seeking monsters to destroy, I think this is very urgently needed to understand. But the reality right now, as stated throughout this entire discussion, the solution to ending the policy of division, of war, of regime change, is economic advancement. If you stop the interventionist policy that’s going on and you have cooperation in terms of development of the Korean Peninsula, that’s going to end this threat of war. When we stop trying to instigate wars between South Korea and North Korea, people know that the destructive policy has been as a result of the murderous policy that Obama represented. Going into these regions and continuing to push a policy of war, almost getting us into a nuclear annihilation. So I don’t think that it’s going to happen, but I think it’s important to reiterate: That unless we stop this coup and this operation that’s been ongoing against President Trump to undermine, or bring down the better efforts of this idea of acting for the mutual benefit of all nations, then we’re going to be in trouble. So it’s not a matter of sitting back and seeing if it’s going to happen: We don’t want to create the situation, or allow for the situation to unfold where that can even come about, so we have to act now, to make sure that the policies of the British Empire to create a divide and conquer strategy is actually eliminated and stopped. [applause] SPEED: Mr. Elliot Greenspan was recently in Europe. He doesn’t know that I was going to have him say something to you all, but he had some chance to spend some time there, so I want him to come and say a couple things, and then we’ll be having our closing remarks from Diane and Kesha. ELLIOT GREENSPAN: In the past several days, there was a forum in China, sponsored by People’s Daily, with 300 media and think tank representatives, from 126 countries. The purpose of the forum was to strengthen the impulse of the world media to convey to the world the unique historic significance of the Belt and Road Initiative. I’m informed there were two Americans there; one was Michael Steger, who is, with Kesha and Diane, a leader of the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee, and it is our mortal challenge as a movement to bring this nation and this President into concert with this Belt and Road Initiative, which is the unique pathway, the only pathway, by which the ongoing crises — the Korean crisis in particular — could be resolved. And it is eminently resolvable. On the occasion of Lyndon LaRouche’s 95th birthday, I had the pleasure and the honor, with John Sigerson, with my wife Margaret, who were on a concert tour in Germany, going into that event — the honor and the pleasure of representing the U.S. organization, representing the Manhattan Project, to Lyn and Helga. And the public dialogue which Lyn and I had was instructive; you can see a summary of this, in the current EIR. But I said to Lyn: "When you created the Manhattan Project, did you foresee that the next President of the United States would come from Manhattan?" And I said, "Look, for better or worse, we have a Manhattan President, Donald Trump, and you said, Lyn, a year ago, when you initiated The Hamiltonian newspaper, that you were too old to run for President, but you were not too old to shape the Presidency. That is what we’re doing with President Trump and with this administration." And I said, "Look, Lyn, we’re not hanging out, we’re not waiting around to determine whether this Presidency turns out for the better or for the worse, we are fighting to shape it." And Lyn’s response was: "President Trump is the right man for the job. He can do the job. If he fails to do so, it is his fault, his responsibility." But Lyn emphasized that the worst thing that ever happened to Manhattan, to lower Manhattan, but to this city, was the attack on 9/11, where 3,000 perished. And he talked about the first responder: He talked about the firemen, the police, the first responders, who rushed to the Towers to assist, to save lives, many of whom lost their lives. The quality that Kesha has emphasized here, today, what Kesha, and Diane, and Mike, and our Policy Committee represent, and what the people in this room represent, is the quality of sublime, of putting one’s dedication to mankind, to the future before one’s physical being. Of manifesting one’s courage and one’s creativity, on behalf of mankind: That’s the challenge which Kesha — in an extremely emotional way — has manifest for us this afternoon, and that’s the quality which is available to all of us, and which is the challenge for all of us, to manifest and to bring into being. That’s the challenge that Lyn was posing to us in that discussion. [applause] SARE: Many years ago, when there was genocide being perpetrated against the people of Africa, as has happened more than once, Mr. LaRouche made the point that it was the weakness of Africa that could be the strength of reversing it, addressing it. And I think we see that now, one, with the situation with the Saudi aggression toward Yemen, where you would say, "what is the power of Yemen, this tiny nation, to defeat something which is so evil and seemingly powerful which is the Saudi Kingdom with the backing of the United States, which is in that regard, functioning as a cat’s paw for the British Empire?" But it evokes a certain passion, what you saw, what Kesha described in the beginning in the way that people responded in Houston, and responded in Mexico City, and no doubt are responding in Puerto Rico right now. Similarly, what occurred on September 11, 2001, I strongly believe could end up being the undoing of exactly this apparatus. Because as we saw a year ago, when Obama tried to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), our disunified, cowardly and corrupt House and Senate, voted overwhelmingly, — the Senate vote was 97-1 and 2 didn’t vote or show up — to override Obama’s veto. And I think in this moment if we really take to heart the peril that mankind is facing, then we can summon the strength as has embodied by Kesha, to actually put an end of this policy of Empire, for once and for all. And that is the job of every American at this moment. ROGERS: I think we can take the spirit as expressed in Mexico, in the phrase of Canta y no llores, "Sing, and Don’t Cry." And I think that that’s the key right now. Canta y no llores: Sing and don’t cry." Because singing is what we have to do right now, to create that which is beautiful on Earth, and to create that which is necessary to free mankind from the evil of Empire. This idea of singing to free ourselves from this force of destruction, to elevate this idea of what is truly human; and people should find heart, find courage, find comfort in the power of music. I think that just going back to the expression of the 9/11, and some people there had the opportunity to participate in the Requiem concerts held on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 there: That conception to ensure that no life is lost in vain, because we’re going to continue to act in accordance with the principles and the actions that needed to defend this nation and the planet against the evils that have been ongoing; against this policy of deliberate negligence, to put an end to it, once and for all. I’d like to say, find courage and find that sense of human identity in the power of music, and go out there and continue to inspire people in every way that you can, to know that there is a way out of this crisis, and we have the ability to bring those solutions to people. And people are looking, they’re hungry, they’re eager for those solutions, and we have to bring that to them, and make sure the solutions, in terms of the emergency action that LaRouche has put forth, and what we’re seeing right now again, with the emergence of a new conception for mankind, that is taking off around the planet with the Belt and Road Initiative which China’s representing, is absolutely the way out of this destructive policy. And we don’t have to succumb to it any longer. That’s my message to you: That the key right now is to create that which is beautiful. [applause] SPEED: Kesha, I think that I speak for everybody here, on behalf of the Manhattan Project, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for what you’ve done here today, what you’ve said. I just want to say to everybody that I think this session has been exemplary of the reason that Lyn created the Manhattan Project: I think we are now, as a result of this session, on a different level, a different standard. The dialogue, the discussions has occurred on a different level today. I think this is the level that Lyn wanted, and I also think it’s the one that’s essential for us to pursue. But I wanted to say that what being a citizen of the United States means today, is, exemplified by what you’ve said, what you’re doing, and who you are; and I think it’s important for all of us to take this product and make sure that everyone that we know sees it, thinks about it, and decides to act on its behalf. So thank you, again. ROGERS: Thank you all. [applause]