First person: China has about 20,000 miles of high speed rail. The U.S. has none.
Second person: Why is that?
First person: China stole all of ours.
A Note To Readers
Well, the Trump administration announced today that a trade deal with China has been agreed to. Here is the headline from the Associated Press today, “US, China Near Deal That Would Suspend Planned Tariffs.” So, as absurd as the short dialogue above may be, there is no question that the two largest economies in the world must cooperate. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is now the biggest infrastructure building project in the world, with more than 130 countries now partners in it, and more than $1 trillion already invested in building the future. President Trump’s often repeated idea that good relations with China and Russia can best be realized by the U.S. joining the BRI. Then the president’s intent of building and rebuilding the United States’ infrastructure can get underway. And we will not need to steal China’s high speed rail system.
That is the subject of a new report from LaRouche PAC. I urge you to read the entire report. Here is the link and the introduction to that pamphlet:
END THE MCCARTHYITE WITCH HUNT AGAINST CHINA & PRESIDENT TRUMP
U.S.-China Good Relationship Is a Strategic Necessity
https://larouchepub.com/special_report/2019/20191123-EndChinaWitchhunt.pdf
In a May 10, 1997 webcast, Lyndon LaRouche discussed the urgent need for a “Four Powers” alliance of sovereign nations to restore economic sanity—“against the greatest power on the planet, which is the British Empire, called the British Commonwealth. That’s the enemy.”
In that speech, delivered 22 years ago, LaRouche outlined a strategy for today’s crisis.
“And if on one bright day, say, a Sunday morning, after a weekend meeting, the President of the United States, the President of China, and a few other people, say, ‘We have determined this weekend, based on our advisors and the facts, that the international financial and monetary system is hopelessly bankrupt. And we, in our responsibility as heads of state, must put these bankrupt institutions into bankruptcy reorganization, in the public interest. And it is in our interest, to cooperate as nations in doing this, to avoid creating chaos on this planet.’ The result then, is that such an announcement … means that the entire system, as of that moment, has been put through the guillotine,and the head is rolling down the street. (Alan Greens-pan’s head, perhaps.)
That means, we have, at that point, the impetus for building, immediately, a new financial and monetary system.”That new financial system is now more urgent than ever. This pamphlet is intended as an antidote to the campaign to poison the U.S.-China relationship and to sabotage a new system from coming into being. As LaRouche noted, only the combination of the United States, China, Russia, and India, working together, would have the clout to put a new system in place.
The Rest of This Week’s Report
Our wet December continues to get wetter. As one headline put it, “Threat of drought wiped off California map after soaking storms.” So, we cover that first.
PG&E exemplifies, as I wrote in my report of mid-November, the actual breakdown of the ability of the U.S. to even keep the electricity on, safely, in the largest state in the Union. (https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2019/2019_40-49/2019-45/48-56_4645.pdf)
So, our follow-up this week focuses on the status of PG&E’s bankruptcy and highlights that hedge fund parasite, Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, which may now be the big looser. A background item on Singer and Elliott Management tells the story of how that vulture fund destroyed a Nebraska town.
Illustrating how not solving California’s water needs by building the North American Water and Power Project, as presented in my report last week, (http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20191205-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf?_t=1575658731) during the five year drought, as farmers increased their pumping of groundwater, land subsidence dramatically increased, falling up to two foot per year. As roads, utilities and other infrastructure was damaged, the most visible effect was the collapsing Friant-Kern Canal, which has lost as much as 40-60 percent of its capacity to deliver water. This past week the repair of the canal, which will cost, according to one estimate $350 million, appears to be heading toward a solution, with the federal government issuing a plan to restore the canal’s flow. Several articles are provided in this section.
A short report on Huntington Beach desalination plant appears headed for a key approval follows.
Then an update on the California “water wars.”
On the Colorado River, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will start taking less water from the Colorado River in January as a hard-fought set of agreements kicks in to reduce the risk of reservoirs falling to critically low levels.
This week’s report concludes with the Feature: A remembrance of one of the great infrastructure engineers of our era, Hal H.B. Cooper. A personal friend for more than 20 years and a colleague in many projects.
