“It might be imagined that the sanest person is one who works with his hands, since he is obliged to prove constantly that the mental processes guiding his hands are in an appropriate correspondence to whatever laws of nature determine the actual results obtained….”
A Note To Readers
When it comes to economics, really, and unfortunately, what most people think must be classified as insane. The quote above is from our Feature this week-- an excerpt from, and a link to, the presentation of the LaRouche PAC weekly “Fireside Chat” of August 30, 2018, by Susan Kokinda. Economics, as it must be understood, is mankind's relation to the real physical universe and how mankind changes that universe through the application of the creative mind making discoveries of the principles of how that universe is organized. That simply means that those such as farmers, manufacturing workers, construction workers, and the engineers who design and build the infrastructure, usually, are the most sane about what is economics. Not simply because they get their hands dirty, but they understand what is required to feed, house and provide all that we use and consume comes from physical production. Those with little or no connection to such activity are less so, and increasingly over the past near 50 years, makes up a majority of our population. Just one example to illustrate the problem: A colleague reported this today: “World Affairs Council of Houston meeting yesterday, where the former president of OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) literally argued that the reason Kenyan farmers are trapped in poverty is because they don’t have access to Uber.” One other area that Kokinda addresses in her presentation must be mentioned. Those who wish to maintain their control over a population may pound you with outright lies, that is true, but more insidious is too keep people ignorant of extremely important developments in the rest of the world. Then a “small mindedness,” sets in, assuring that an alternative world to one's experience is never encountered by most. An example of that is occurring this week: Not a single word has been reported in the U.S. or British media about the truly historic conference which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAP). An unprecedented attendance at this conference of more than 50 African nations' heads of state, agreed to expand the African nations participation in the China One Belt One Road project of building infrastructure and industry. I should add this note here: That at the BRICS summit of heads of state in South Africa last month, President Putin of Russia stated that Russia would “light-up” Africa with nuclear power. That is part and parcel of the African Union 2063 agenda to make all African nations achieve a “middle income” level of living standards for the continent's 1.2 billion people. Below you see an actual satellite photo of Africa at night in 2018. And next to it what Africa will look like in 2058. A link to a report on that conference in China is included just before this week's “Feature.” We in the United States used to think of doing big things like that, and under Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy, we did them. Had there been satellites in 1933, the entire southeast region of the United States, before the building of the Tennessee Valley Authority, looked like Africa today. In This Week's Report The U.S. Drought Monitor this week shows a slight intensification of drought in California. After a three week lull in major wildfires, it appears that this week we are experiencing a new round of such fires, with the Delta Fire, south of Shasta, exploding yesterday, shutting down the I-5 in both directions. The Oroville Dam Update begins with a new video on the repairs to the spillways underway. But, the major coverage this week is the report by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) that the Oroville spillways construction and cost estimate has now topped $1 billion. There is the update from the DWR and links to press coverage of this development. Then there is the new report by the Division of Safety of Dams of the DWR, showing that only the Oroville Dam of all the dams in the state has an unsatisfactory rating. While some may not like the phrase “California water wars,” the fights over water policy can be described accurately with only that phrase. This week the only item on the topic is the Trump administration maneuvers and the state government counter maneuvers to redivide up the inadequate flows of water that California presently has. Fight as they may, it will not solve that problem.
Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell on the Colorado River are now dropping to dangerous levels, as reported by one article this week.
Two more items in this report are: First, A Giant Backlog in Global Infrastructure Development, and second, the So-Called ‘Emerging Market Currency Crisis’ Is Getting Serious.
Then the report concludes with the Feature, as discussed above.
