www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20200514-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf?_t=1589596925
“The individual who contributes to making society Good is worth a thousand times the individual who wanders through life scattering only individual good deeds. For, a bad society will crush the good contributed by its individual members . . . . Who makes society Good thus preserves the goods contributed by thousands and millions of individuals.” Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. In “The Science of the Human Mind”
A Note To Readers
For California water and infrastructure developments this week, see a summary of the coverage immediately below this, and full coverage following the introduction:
“This is the Big One” is the headline of the first item in our Feature this week. Here are the first paragraphs of that article:
‘This Is the Big One’
“May 13 (EIRNS)—There have been an increasing number of serious warnings from various sources warning that if we, as nations and as individuals, do not change the direction of things, it could lead to “The Big One.” But this is a serious error, Helga Zepp-LaRouche emphasized today in her weekly international webcast. The problem, she said, is that people focus on aspects of the crisis—such as the pandemic, the financial crisis, global famine, the war danger—but miss the overall cause: that we are in a breakdown crisis fifty years in the making. There is no solution to any of the individual crises without addressing all crises at once.
“While it is foolish to retail the conspiracy theories which blame China or President Donald Trump for the pandemic, it is equally foolish to blame it on the coronavirus. Viruses will always emerge, but the fact that there is a pandemic is entirely due to the fifty years of systematic takedown of the public health capacities in the trans-Atlantic nations, coupled with the de-industrialization which degraded employment and standards of living. Add to that the legalization of drugs and opiates, and other aspects of the degradation of the culture. Even worse was the denial of modernization and industrial development in the developing nations, leaving Ibero-America and Africa subject to a holocaust not seen in centuries.
“The World Food Program warns of 300,000 deaths per day within months from the virus and starvation if emergency measures are not taken now in the poor nations—a process that absolutely requires close cooperation between the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States. A Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet on May 12, which researched the potential impact of the pandemic on 118 low- or middle-income countries around the world, warned that over the next six months, an additional 1.15 million young children under five years of age, and 56,700 perinatal mothers, could die from wasting and other preventable causes as a result of the breakdown of the already weak health systems in these countries—6,000 children and 344 perinatal mothers per day.”
For the same reason that there has been no water infrastructure built in California for more than 40 years, and during that time we in the western nations have outsourced and destroyed the most productive industrial economies the world had ever seen. And through the “share-holder value” philosophy dominating the entire economy since the early 1970s, we have wrecked our public health care infrastructure, making the nation unprepared for the pandemic that is finishing off the system of monetarist insanity. That system must go, it is true, but as it dies it is destroying the lives of tens of millions.
To address this crisis the second item in the Feature below presents a “A Whole Economy Approach to the World—1.5 Billion New Productive Jobs!” Here are the first two paragraphs of that item:
“May 12 (EIRNS)—For us to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic, and succeed economically afterward, there is no partial approach, neither geographically, nor by a single economic sector—agriculture, manufacturing, shipping, health care, etc., nor nation by nation—not even the United States or China. There is only the whole world approach, undertaken by collaborating sovereign nations. Helga Zepp-LaRouche spoke of this to associates today, after meeting with a team setting out to produce an economic program as fast as possible, under the working title, “The World Needs 1.5 Billion New Productive Jobs.”
“This new LaRouchePAC program will present the full scope of necessary agro-industrial activity within a productive platform of power, water, transportation, science, and education. Its top-down perspective is in line with the necessity for the major Four Powers to confer top-down and take collaborative action. These represent the large economies and human resources. Also needed are the powerful economies of Japan, Germany, France, Italy and more. Fighting the pandemic and building up Africa is a world priority.”
Also In This Week’s Report
In recent weeks we have seen the development of a new drought in California, and Oregon. That continues. The U.S. Drought Monitor posted below tracks California’s drought, followed by several articles developing that theme. (pages 3-5)
There has been much activity in the never-ending California Water Wars, and that is covered more extensively this week. In summary, the Trump administration acting to provide more water to farmers has changed the rules for sending water out of the Delta and to the farmers. The state of California responded by both propaganda and a law suit to stop the changes the administration initiated. Then responding to the state’s actions, most of the water agencies and farm organizations have struck back. (pages 6-9)
Virtually bragging about trillions of stimulus funds going to Wall Street banks, the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell essentially announced that “Bailouts Are Us.” For excerpts of his press conference yesterday, you will find it under the title, “The Federal Reserve: Bailouts Are Us.” (pages 9-11)
That section is followed by two ten minute videos which get to the heart of the disaster that is the financial system: “For Economic Recovery: Starve Wall Street, Rebuild the Physical Economy,” and the second one, “The Economics of Defeating the Coronavirus.” (page 11)
The last section before the Feature is titled, “Reports on The Big One’” and includes these two reports:
1. Schiller Institute International Farm Leaders Conference Call: Governments Must Replace Cartels; Save Farm Capacity, Stop Hunger Pandemic
2. World Food Program Head Presents Horrendous Potential of the Food Chain Collapse
(pages 11-13)
The Feature presents the two reports mentioned above. (pages 13-15)
