Author: Alicia

by Benjamin Deniston · benjamin.deniston@gmail.com

As has been emphasized recently by Lyndon LaRouche and his Executive Intelligence Review magazine and LaRouche Political Action Committee, to understand climate, weather, and the behavior of water on our planet we must start by understanding the role of our galaxy.^{1See, “New Perspectives on the Western Water Crisis,” EIR, April 3, 2015; “Galactic Man: Shadow versus Principle,” EIR, May 15, 2015; and the LaRouche PAC water page, at LaRouchePAC.com/global-water}

Records of the largest climate variations over the past half billion years correspond to changes in the galactic environment experienced by our Solar System—indicating that the galaxy has the strongest role in determining the climate variations on Earth.^{2See, “Celestial driver of Phanerozoic climate?” Nir Shaviv and Ján Veizer, GSA Today, July 2003.}

The implications of this can be looked at in two ways.

On the one side, an adherent to the modern school of scientific reductionism may see this as, perhaps, an interesting phenomenon, but one with no general impact on our understanding of the nature and ordering of causality in the universe.

On the other side, a mind which is not suffering from the debilitating effects of the destruction of science led by David Hilbert and Bertrand Russell^{3For more on the destructive role of Hilbert and Russell, see Jason Ross’ presentation to the May 16, 2015 Schiller Institute New York City conference (http://youtu.be/QQ9f3RTQGEE?t=1550), and “The Escape From Hilbert’s `ZETA’ `X’: Mapping the Cosmos!” by Lyndon LaRouche, EIR, March 4, 2010.} (mathematical reductionism) will see this as a clue to defining a new understanding of the hierarchical nature of causality in the universe—pursuing the conception of science defined by Nicolas of Cusa (as in his 1440 De Docta Ignorantia) and his follower Johannes Kepler.

Here we will take the opportunity of the publication of the first English translation of Vladimir Vernadsky’s 1930 report, “The Study of Life and the New Physics,” to examine another clue, again pointing us towards the need for a higher understanding of our galaxy.^{4See the publication of “The Study of Life and the New Physics,” in EIR, May 22, 2015.}

Studies have shown that there are cycles in the evolutionary development of animal life over the past 540 million years on Earth—cycles which correspond in period and in phase to cyclical aspects of the motion of our Solar System through our galaxy.

This can also be looked at in two ways.

In the modern domination of Russellian reductionism, a “kill mechanism” is sought to explain how different galactic environments can accelerate the extinction rate of species and, thereby, imprint records of these cosmic fluctuations in the evolutionary record.

For an approach freed from the disease of reductionism, we can instead look to the views of Vernadsky, as presented in his 1930 report, “The Study of Life and The New Physics.”

A student of Dmitri Mendeleev, and an avid opponent to the influence of Bertrand Russell on Russian and Soviet science, Vernadsky’s hypotheses about life in the cosmos provide an important basis to investigate the relation between the changing expression of life on Earth and the subsuming galactic system.

This provides another avenue for understanding that which subsumes our Solar System, our Earth, and the processes therein.

One of the European Southern Observatory’s telescopes in their Very Large Telescope array uses a laser beam to create an artificial star high in the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing the astronomers to correct for atmospheric distortion (utilizing adaptive optics) as they study the central regions of our Milky Way Galaxy. The picture was taken in August of 2010 picture by Yuri Beletsky.

Identifying the Important Evidence

Fossil records leave a map of the evolutionary development of complex life on Earth, showing an overall increase in the number of distinct animal species (and more clearly in measures of genera) on the plant over the past 540 million years (as is best recorded in records of ocean life). However, upon this overall increase is imprinted a smaller periodic rise and fall in the number of genera at any given time. Early indication of this go back to the 1980s,^{5“Periodic Extinction of Families and Genera,” Raup and Sepkoski, 1986, Science, Volume 231, Issue 4740.} but more recent analysis (with a more complete fossil record) has solidified the evidence for a cycle in the decline and increase in the number of genera over time.^{6“Cycles in fossil diversity,” Rohde and Muller, March 10, 2005, Nature, Vol 434.} Perhaps most interestingly, this cycle corresponds with the period and phase of cyclical aspects of the motion of our Solar System through the Milky Way Galaxy.

Changes in the total number of fossilized marine genera over the past 540 millions years provides a measure of the changing biodiversity over the Phanerozoic Eon. The total number of distinct genera is shown on the bottom, indicating an overall increase in the biodiversity. When the overall growth trend is removed, the cyclical variation in biodiversity becomes more evident (as shown on the top graph, which includes a 62 million year cycle). If only “short-lived” genera are examined (ones which lasted less than 45 million years) then the 62 million year cycle also presents itself (as shown in the middle graph). The image has been adapted from Rohde and Muller, 2005.

Existing attempts to explain this correlation between galactic activity and evolution of life rely upon a sequence of domino like effects resulting from the introduction of a “kill mechanism.” They look for ways that cosmic processes might kill off large enough numbers of individual animals (either directly, or by creating certain environmental effects which will do so), which in turn could then lead to extinctions of entire species, and, if the killing rate was powerful enough and sustained, then to the extinctions of large numbers of different species, resulting in the extinctions of entire genera, and then families, culminating in a “mass extinction”^{7The initial attempt to define such a kill-mechanism posits that high energy radiation experienced in different parts of the galaxy damages and kills more animals when the Solar System is in this region, leading to greater extinction rates (“Do extragalactic cosmic rays induce cycles in fossil diversity?” Medvedev and Melott, 2007). In a more recent attempt to explain this correlation, another scientist proposed that the extinctions are the product of comet impacts with the Earth, produced periodically by the Solar System’s cyclical passage through more dense regions of the galaxy (at which times comets hiding in the outskirts of our Solar System can have their orbits perturbed, sending some towards the inner planets). See, “Disc dark matter in the Galaxy and potential cycles of extraterrestrial impacts, mass extinctions and geological events,” Michael R. Rampino, February 18, 2015, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 448, Issue 2.}

The belief that increased extinction rates, or even mass extinctions can be explained by this type of a bottom-up causality is not a demonstrated generalization based on evidence, but, rather, the product of certain reductionist beliefs and assumptions. In reality the phenomena of mass extinctions are still poorly understood.^{8For example, a rather thorough 2006 paper by Richard Bambach reanalyzed what is known about extinctions and mass extinctions over the past 540 million years. His last two conclusions were interesting. “Mass extinctions are diverse and vary in intensity, selectivity, and timing. They are not homogeneous in effect or in cause.” And, “Knowledge of timing and of geographic and environmental distribution of effects is inadequate. At this time, no consensus on proximate cause of death has been obtained for any extinction event.” See, “Phanerozoic Biodiversity Mass Extinctions,” Richard K. Bambach, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2006.34:127-155} What we know from the fossil record is that there can be relatively rapid (in geological terms) transitions where many species, genera, and families disappear from the records and are replaced by new forms (though these more dramatic (and rapid) shifts exist within the context of an already ongoing slower turnover rate). How and why this occurred the way it did is still not well understood.

Fossilized remains of an extinct species of sea stars (Dipsacaster africanus) from around 130 million years ago. The fossils were discovered in Taba, Morocco. Credit: Didier Descouens

So, rather than assuming we must accept a reductionist framework, here we will take a different approach.

Perhaps most important for this shift in approach is to recognize that it isn’t simply extinctions which define with these cycles, but extinctions and originations (the generation of new species, genera, and families).

As stated in a 2013 paper on the subject, the evidence for a cycle in the process of the evolutionary development of life on Earth “results from the coherent interaction of both extinction and origination fluctuations, producing a stronger signal than either would or could alone”.^{9“Analysis of periodicity of extinction using the 2012 geological timescale,” Melott and Bambach, 2013; citing, “A ubiquitous ~62-Myr periodic fluctuation superimposed on general trends in fossil biodiversity. II. Evolutionary dynamics associated with periodic fluctuation in marine diversity,” Melott and Bambach, 2011, Paleobiology.}

So we must also ask why there exist periodic phases characterized by the origination of new genera.

Put simply, we’re looking for more than a kill mechanism, we’re examining, on the one side, the anti-entropic development of life on Earth, and, on the other, the relation of our Solar System to our galactic system—and we’re asking why cycles in both processes correlate so well. The work of Vernadsky provides a new basis to investigate this relation, in these top-down terms.

Vernadsky’s “The Study of Life and the New Physics”

We don’t know what life is.

Vernadsky’s work provides an important distinction between the study of living processes and life per se. We can study living processes as effects of life, as particular expressions of life, without assuming that these specific expressions, alone, define life per se. This important distinction provides the needed framework to properly pursue the properties and characteristics of life, per se—investigating that which underlies certain particular expressions and manifestations.

Vernadsky took up exactly this approach in his 1930 report, “The Study of Life and the New Physics.” Examining the identifiable properties of living processes—as they can be studied in the context of their existence in the biogeochemical medium of the Earth’s biosphere—he separated the properties into two lists: first, those properties which are associated with the planetary (biogeochemical) medium within which living processes are manifested on Earth; second, those properties displayed by living processes which can not be attributed to the characteristics and properties of this planetary context, and, thus, might express something more universal about life, per se.^{10See section 10 of “The Study of Life and the New Physics.”}

Vernadsky immediately follows this second list with a conclusion which will be upsetting to today’s reductionists: “This list is not complete, but it indicates, with evidence, that life manifests itself in the Cosmos in other forms than those which biology normally displays.”

Since living processes are not merely a phenomenon of geochemistry^{11Despite the delusions of Vernadsky’s opponent and adversary, Alexander Oparin. See, “A.I. Oparin: Fraud, Fallacy, or Both?” by Meghan Rouillard, Spring 2013 issue of 21st Century Science and Technology.}—but are an expression of a principle of life, per se, manifested in the context of a geochemical medium—we should be willing to seek out in the cosmos other expressions of these non-planetary properties of life.

Vernadsky then dedicates the entire latter half of his report to the two non-planetary properties of life which he thinks could be the most fruitful in investigating how “life manifests itself in the Cosmos in other forms than those which biology normally displays.”

Here I will dwell upon two phenomena which will allow for the clarification of the important role which the investigation of life plays in the scientific picture of the Universe, created by the new physics, notably upon the dissymmetry of the space of living organisms and on biological time. In the first case, this is a matter of new properties (a particular state of physical space), observed in living organisms, and in the second, new properties of physical time.^{12See section 11 of “The Study of Life and the New Physics.”}

Of his 18 section report, Vernadsky focuses most of the latter half to the first of these two, “the dissymmetry of the space of living organisms” (sections 11 to 16), followed by one section on biological time (section 17).

Vernadsky’s work—both distinguishing a principle of life, per se, from the particular expressions of living processes we’re familiar with on Earth, and positing the need to investigate other potential expressions of this principle in the cosmos—provides a critical, non-reductionist basis for investigating the correlation of cycles of extinction and origination in the fossil record with the cycles of our Solar System’s motion through our galaxy—that is, to investigate the potential relationship between the process of the anti-entropic development of living processes on Earth and the processes of the cosmic system of our galaxy.

As we will see, Vernadsky’s conception of dissymmetrical states of space will be key.

Cosmic Dissymmetry

In a different address (delivered one year later), Vernadsky made some rather interesting remarks regarding galactic systems specifically. Citing early studies examining the distribution of “spiral nebulae” (as spiral galaxies used to be called), Vernadsky hypothesized their orientations could be an expression of a “dissymmetrical” characteristic of the cosmos.

The spiral form of nebulae and of some stellar agglomerations indicates the probable presence of analogous dissymmetrical phenomena in the Cosmos. If the right spirals predominate in effect, clearly, among the spiral nebulae, as numerous photographs attest, or in certain parts of the universe right spiral nebulae are concentrated and in others left spiral nebulae, the existence of dissymmetric spaces in the Cosmos would become more than probable. This dissymmetry would seem to be analogous to that which we observe in the space penetrated by life, that is to say, that it possesses enantiomorphic vectors and both of the vectors—left and right—could exist there at the same time, but not in equal number; the right-handed vectors most often predominate there.^{13From Vernadsky’s 1931 speech, “On the Conditions of the Appearance of Life on Earth,” translated from French by Meghan Rouillard, archive.larouchepac.com/node/30145}

While recent studies indicate Vernadsky may have been onto something interesting regarding the large-scale distribution of galaxies,^{14Though it is unclear exactly which “spiral nebulae” (spiral galaxies) Vernadsky was referring to in 1931, 80 years later a Professor from the University of Michigan, Michael Longo, published a study showing that there is indeed a preferred orientation to spiral galaxies, depending on which direction one looks. Using a data set of 260,000 clearly defined spiral galaxies, Longo found that in a specific direction (about 10 degrees from the spin axis of our own galaxy) we see more left-handed spiral galaxies than right-handed ones. In a following study, looking from the southern hemisphere (instead of the northern), Longo showed that in the exact opposite direction the opposite is the case, more right-handed galaxies are seen than left-handed ones. This is a remarkable finding, one we can be sure Vernadsky would find highly significant. See “Detection of a Dipole in the Handedness of Spiral Galaxies with Redshifts z ~0.04,” by Michael J. Longo, Physics Letters B, 699, 224-229 (2011).} here we’re interested in the potential dissymmetrical characteristics of a single galaxy—our own.

For a single spiral galaxy to express and inherent dissymmetry—i.e. to have an inherent handedness – there has to be a physical distinction between the top and bottom (north and south),^{15Otherwise a spiral galaxy which appears to be right-handed when being observed from one side would, at the same time, appear to be left-handed when observed from the other side. The left vs. right distinction would merely be a product of the location of observation, not an intrinsic
expression of the galactic system itself, unless something distinguished one side from the other} a distinction expressing the global characteristics of the galactic system as a whole.

Most importantly, if we are working from Vernadsky’s conception of potential cosmic expressions of a quality of dissymmetrical space which we see expressed in living organisms, then perhaps the top-bottom (north-south) distinction which defines the dissymmetry of a spiral galaxy should be expressed in the response of living processes most strongly. That is, it would make sense that the most important evidence for defining an inherently dissymmetrical space of a galaxy would be the reaction of living processes to the influence of that dissymmetrical space.

Holding that thought, let’s return to what we know about the relationship of our Solar System to the galaxy.

As we orbit around the center of our galaxy, the Solar System also passes above and below the galactic plane, in a bobbing-type motion. Based on current measurements and analysis, the cycles of this up and down motion are roughly 30 (26-37) million years from mid-plane, through a peak, back to mid-plane, or 30 million years from one peak to the opposite peak, or 60 million years from one peak, through the opposite, and back to the same side.

Most researchers think that the conditions on either side of the galactic plane (north or south) should be generally similar, and, therefore, any imprint of this changing galactic environment recorded in the Earth’s history should express a 30 million year periodicity.

In fact this is true for at least one abiotic process, the climate, where a 30 million year cycle has been found.^{16See, “Is the Solar System’s Galactic Motion Imprinted in the Phanerozoic Climate?” by Nir Shaviv, Andreas Prokoph, and Ján Veizer; Scientific Reports, Article number: 6150 doi:10.1038/srep06150, published August 21, 2014.}

However, records of the evolutionary development of life on Earth display a ~62 million year fluctuation.^{17Indication of other cycles have also been identified, but this one is clear and unambiguous, as stated in the initial paper identifying its existence, “… the 62-Myr cycle is not a subtle signal. It is evident even in the raw data, dominant in the short-lived genera and strongly confirmed by statistical analysis.” See, “Cycles in fossil diversity,” Rohde and Muller, March 10, 2005, Nature, Vol 434.} As mentioned above, this biodiversity cycle is strongest when not only examining extinctions, but extinctions together with originations (the appearance of new genera), forcing the investigation beyond the reductionist search for a kill mechanism.

An illustration of the motion of our Solar System above and below the galactic plane (original image of NC galaxy 5866 from NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)).

Thus, the evidence for a relationship between processes of our galactic system and the evolutionary development of life on Earth is not simply associated with being either above or below the galactic plane, but with the characteristics of one side vs the other. From within the reductionist camp this is taken as evidence to doubt the existence of a connection between this galactic process and the evolution of living processes on Earth (despite the clear correlation), because they have no reason to hypothesize a distinction between the north and south sides.^{18For example, “The Sun currently oscillates up and down across the Galactic plane every 52–74 [million years], but plausible responses would seem to occur every mid-plane crossing (namely 26–37Myr)” (Rohde, Muller; “Cycles in fossil diversity,” 2005); and “Thus, these ~60 Ma periodicities are probably unrelated to the 32 Ma cycle discussed here, unless there is a very large north-south asymmetry relative to the galactic plane” (Shaviv, Prokoph, Veizer, “Is the Solar System’s Galactic Motion Imprinted in the Phanerozoic Climate?” 2014).} But when viewed from the conceptions of Vernadsky, the distinction which serves as their basis for doubt becomes our point of interest.

A physical distinction between one side of the galaxy from the other is required for our Vernadskian hypothesis of a dissymmetrical characteristic governing the physical space of the galactic system – providing the critical evidence needed to define a distinct, intrinsic handedness of the system (irrespective of one’s vantage point).

The evolutionary cycle being 60 million years, rather than 30 (and matching the proper phase), provides the needed evidence for a distinction, indicating the potential for an inherent difference in the north vs south sides of our galaxy, and, thereby, its inherent dissymmetry. It is most appropriate that fluctuations in the history of the evolutionary development of living processes on Earth are what provides the critical evidence for defining an intrinsic dissymmetry of our galactic system—indicating galactic manifestation of dissymmetrical space, to which living processes on Earth are responsive.^{19Recall how Vernadsky was calling for investigating how “life manifests itself in the Cosmos in other forms than those which biology normally displays.”}

Spacetime of Anti-Entropy

In the terminology and framework pursued by Vernadsky, this could be an expression of a dissymmetrical spacetime characteristics of our galactic system.^{20Vernadsky often focused on, and returned to the spacetime properties of living processes as critical to investigating and understanding life phenomena. He developed the need to consider the spacetime of living processes as dissymmetrical with a polar vector. This is the case in the cited paper, “Life and the New Physics,” as well as other work, emphatically his series on the Problems of Biogeochemistry, available in “150 Years of Vernadsky: The Biosphere,” 21st Century Science and Technology, Jason Ross (Editor), Meghan Rouillard (Series Editor).}

This is not the first indication that the study of galactic systems could require a new conception of a self-bounded spacetime intrinsic to that galactic system.^{21Observational evidence indicating discrepant redshift measurements for galactic systems (i.e. redshift values which can not be attributed to any currently accepted cause of redshifts, such as cosmological expansion, recessional velocity, or relativistic effects), can (although highly controversial) be taken as possible evidence for unique spacetime characteristics distinct to an individual galactic system (see, Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies, Halton Arp, 1988,
Cambridge University Press). Also the “M-sigma relation” (showing that the mass of a galaxy’s bulge scales in a very tight proportion to the mass of a phenomenon often referred to as the supermassive black hole at the center of that same galaxy) indicates a higher structure and coherence to a galactic system as a unity. These (and other provocative lines of evidence) tickle the imagination to ponder the yet to be discovered principle organizing the existence and development of a galactic system.} However, Vernadsky’s direction of work indicates that we should open our minds to the qualities of the spacetime characteristics of living processes (rather than simply abiotic physics), if we are to truly attempt to understand the cosmos as containing a principle of life, per se, and galactic systems therein.

With this evidence for a relation between the evolutionary development of life on Earth and the processes of our galactic system, we see the option to invert the investigation—to examine the characteristics expressed by evolution as informing us about the nature of our galactic system as a whole.

As Vernadsky correctly identified in his 1926 address on evolution,^{22“The Evolution of Species and Living Matter,” 1926, Translated from the French by Meghan Rouillard, larouchepac.com/node/256} there is an intrinsic direction in the evolutionary development of life on Earth—the increasing energy flux density of the biosphere system—which Vernadsky called his “second biogeochemical principle.”

This biogeochemical principle which I will call the second biogeochemical principle can be formulated thus: The evolution of species, leading to the creation of new, stable, living forms, must move in the direction of an increasing of the biogenic migration of atoms in the biosphere…

[This second biogeochemical principle] indicates, in my opinion, with an infallible logic, the existence of a determined direction, in the sense of how the processes of evolution must necessarily take place… All theories of evolution must take into consideration the existence of this determined direction of the process of evolution, which, with the subsequent developments in science, will be able to be numerically evaluated. It seems impossible to me, for several reasons, to speak of evolutionary theories without taking into account the fundamental question of the existence of a determined direction, invariable in the processes of evolution, in the course of all the geological epochs. Taken together, the annals of paleontology do not show the character of a chaotic upheaval, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, but of phenomena, for which the development is carried out in a determined manner, always in the same direction, in that of the increasing of consciousness, of thought, and of the creation of forms augmenting the action of life on the ambient environment.^{23This second biogeochemical principle should also be considered as a non-planetary property of life, according to Vernadsky’s analysis in his “Study of Life Phenomena and the New Physics.”}

Since Vernadsky’s time, we’ve accumulated a much larger and more detailed map of the evolutionary development of life. While the new evidence strongly conforms to Vernadsky’s second biogeochemical principle,^{24For example, see, “Macro-Ecological Revolutions: Mass Extinctions as Shadows Of AntiEntropic
Growth,” Benjamin Deniston, March 23, 2012, EIR.} we are still far from understanding the principle which has composed that map.

In pursuit of this, we’ve been pointed to the processes of our own galactic system—as the macroevolutionary pulsations associated with the anti-entropic development of living processes on Earth beat in harmony with our Solar System’s experience of the dissymmetrical characteristics of our galaxy.

Rather than simply an Earth-based phenomenon, the development of life on Earth could be an expression of an anti-entropic character of our galaxy, returning us to the opening challenge: understanding the causal role of our galactic system in the hierarchical ordering of the Universe.

Newly released “Secret” Defense Intelligence Agency documents from 2012 prove that President Obama knew that the September 11, 2012, attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the murders of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American officials, was a premeditated attack by a local Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood affiliate. The DIA document, dated September 12, 2012—just hours after the deadly attack—circulated widely among American national security officials, including to the White House, and showed, conclusively, that the assault on the US diplomatic compound and CIA annex was known to have been an Al Qaeda operation.

As the result of the May 18 release of that DIA document and over 100 pages of Defense Department and State Department “Secret” documents, the evidence is now conclusive: President Barack Obama willfully lied to the American people and to the US Congress, to cover up the fact that the United States had been attacked by an Al Qaeda organization that the President had claimed was defeated, as a key feature of the presidential re-election campaign.

The President has been caught committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” against the US Constitution. He must be impeached immediately.

After being informed of the release of the DIA documents, as the result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law suit by Judicial Watch, Lyndon LaRouche declared that “The preconditions for President Obama’s removal from office have now been met. The evidence is conclusive, and is now in the public domain.”

LaRouche warned that the release of the DIA “smoking gun” will drive President Obama to acts of desperation. “Expect acts of desperation from Obama. His regime is about to be dumped.”

The September 12, 2012 DIA “Secret” document stated, in part:

Other DIA documents released as part of the FOIA action included an October 2012 report, documenting the flow of weapons from Benghazi into the hands of jihadist Syrian rebels. Another DIA report from August 2012 documented the strong Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood ties of the leading Syrian opposition groups, and actually anticipated the creation of an Islamic State on the border region of Syria and Iraq.

The question now before the US Congress and the American people, is whether the mandate for President Obama’s impeachment will be acted upon, before a major catastrophe, including a potential thermonuclear war, is unleashed by a desperate Obama.

LaRouche, who worked closely with Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton on specific national security policies, noted that the release of the DIA evidence against President Obama affords a unique opportunity to revive the US Presidency, which has been in a state of degeneracy since the British Crown launched their 1997-1998 campaign to bring down the Clinton presidency—at the precise moment that Clinton was launching a major overhaul of the bankrupt global financial system. “The first consequence of the destruction of Bill Clinton was the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which was followed by eight disastrous years of the George W. Bush and Dick Cheney Administration, now followed by the even more disastrous Obama Presidency,” LaRouche said.

The new revelations offer a perfect moment of opportunity to not only remove Obama from office by Constitutional means; but to restore the Presidency, reinstate Glass-Steagall, and launch a desperately-needed economic revival. This, LaRouche concluded, “is an opportunity that we cannot miss, if humanity is to survive.”

There could not be a more extreme contrast than that between the proposals of the two leading statesmen who are visiting South Korea today.

As Indian President Narendra Modi offers development cooperation and a strategic alliance for peace in Asia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Seoul ranting about North Korea, threatening new sanctions and to take Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court (ICC), while lying that there is “not an inch, not a centimeter, not a microscope (sic)” of difference between the United States and South Korea in the approach to the North.

As documented in depth in EIR, Seoul, despite serious concerns over the erratic regime in the North, is deeply involved in ongoing development projects involving South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. President Park Geun-hye is intent on building rail and pipeline connections through North Korea to Russia and China within this year, as part of a “peace through development” approach.

Kerry’s threats are clearly aimed at the South as well as the North. He raved: “The world is hearing increasingly more and more stories of grotesque, grisly, horrendous, public displays of executions,” referring to press reports last week that the South Korea intelligence agency had reported that one of North Korea’s top military officials had been executed with anti-aircraft weapons in public. Even the South’s spy agency has now retracted its report of the execution, but that did not restrain Kerry’s hysteria.

The purpose was made clear when Kerry met with U.S. military forces in Seoul, saying that the threat from the North means “we need to deploy ships, forces, and we are talking about THAAD.” This is Kerry’s first reference to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles, South Korea recognizes THAAD is useless against North Korea, 30 miles away, and is only intended as part of the encirclement of China and Russia — which South Korea refuses to be part of.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei responded to Kerry’s belligerence: “Under the current complex and sensitive situation on the Korean Peninsula, we hope that the relevant parties can do more to ease the situation and do things conducive to the resumption of the six-party talks.”

Park Geun-hye is planning to visit Washington in June.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s California State Water Control Board officially put Brown’s killer cuts in water usage into effect on April 21. On May 6, the Water Control Board added new “rules” — really restrictions — against ocean water desalination in the state, reinforcing that Brown’s policy is, “conserve until you leave” — or die.

The desalination “rule” were promulgated as applications for desalination plants in the state are multiplying, usually coming from municipalities along California’s 800-mile Pacific Ocean coast, and their contracting engineering companies. The rules “could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of proposed desalination plants,” according to a long report in U-T San Diego. They will also open avenues for greenie lawsuits against plants. The new rules will make desalinated water twice as expensive as recycled waste water, says Poseidon, the company getting ready to open a 50 million gallon/day plant in Carlsbad, San Diego County.

The plans for these plants, as for example, the Huntington Beach plant scheduled for operation in late 2017, will now have to be redone, to see if the builders, such as Poseidon, can still afford to build the plants. The Carlsbad plant will have to be retrofitted after it opens later this year, although it is state-of-the-art technology.

The rule reads in part: “The amendment requires new or expanded seawater desalination plants to use the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize intake and mortality of all forms of marine life. Based on the best available science, the amendments identify preferred technologies; however, alternative intake and disposal methods can be used if demonstrated to be as protective of marine life as the preferred technologies. Additionally, mitigation measures are required in order to address damage to marine life that occurs, after the best available site, design, and technology feasible are used.”

One can anticipate the reaction of these population killers when experiments in atmospheric ionization to produce rain — a real technological frontier — begin in the state, as called for by Lyndon LaRouche and LaRouchePAC. These experiments have been successful in many countries in the world; but in Mexico where they first demonstrated themselves, they were killed by the National Water Commission, Conagua, then headed by Jose Luis Luege Tamargo, an aficionado of the genocidalist World Wildlife Fund.

Brown will kill them too, if still in the governor’s chair. If California wants to live, he has to be thrown out of it.

The crucial role of a BRICS Bank offer of membership to Greece, contributing to a toughening of the Greek government’s commitment to its population against the bankrupt EU “creditors,” has been met with a counterattack by London and NATO — in neighboring Macedonia. This is an explicit attempt to repeat the “Maidan” uprising and coup in Macedonia, which dragged Ukraine into the bankrupt arms of the EU and NATO a year ago.

A week ago Greece was defaulting on the IMF, which “blinked” and essentially proposed a trick by which it would pay itself the $750 million payment “due” from Greece. Greece’s determination to restore employment, wages, and pensions — and not to pay, or contract any further debts which compromise this — was thus sufficiently shown. Greece is very close to giving China’s COSCO the contract to develop the Port of Piraeus and the surrounding rail system.

The City of London’s first counterattack is to collapse the Greek banking system, using the European Central Bank to force a formal split from the euro, where it cannot force more austerity. Greek 2- and 3-year bond interest rates are spiking upward today as a result — but, so are those of other so-called “peripheral” EU economies, showing contagion which was not supposed to occur.

The second weapon, against the BRICS-allied nations as a whole, is being deployed in Macedonia. At an anti-government rally of 10-20,000 in the capital, Skopje, opposition leader Zoran Zaev proclaimed yesterday that if Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski did not resign, “there will be war here like in Ukraine.” EU diplomats flagrantly marched at the head of the demonstration — the mark of the Maidan. Zaev, whose party has received George Soros funds for years, told the Soros-owned NOVA-TV that the opposition had brought “2,000 young people who know karate and kick-box.”

Macedonia is on China’s Maritime Silk Road, on the route of the gas pipeline agreed by Russia and Turkey into Europe, and is opposed to the sanctions against Russia. And, its economy is growing at a near 5% annual rate, according to the IMF.

The past weeks have seen an extraordinary consolidation of the economic partnership and mutual support among China, India, and Russia—the core of the BRICS impulse of scientific progress and economic growth, which is now reaching many nations. A “brotherhood,” as EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche recently called it, rather than an alliance of nations, some of which are driving the highest rates of productivity and growth in the world; others of which, desperately need that.

But the relatively bankrupt trans-Atlantic countries, with very bankrupt banking systems, are driving the world toward war—and not only the spreading, genocidal wars in the Mideast and Northern Africa which Bush and Obama, Blair and Cameron, and their Saudi allies have started.

This week, the battle was in full view in South Korea, where Indian Prime Minister Modi and U.S. Secretary of State Kerry were visiting at the same time.

India and Korea formed a strategic partnership; Korea extended $10 billion in credits for Indian infrastructure development, along with a commitment to bring to India, South Korea’s famously successful model for rural development. Modi presented the benefits of his “Make in India” campaign, for Korea.

Kerry, on the same day, dismayed his Korean hosts by blustering attacks on North Korea—virtual demands for war on the peninsula—and pushed the U.S. ballistic missile defense system Korea does not want, down their throats.

Kerry’s deputy, Victoria Nuland, spent three days in Ukraine, then that country’s President signed laws which effectively glorify the country’s Nazi collaboration during World War II and outlaw dissent against it; while the Obama Administration again emphasized that heavy weapons for Ukraine to fight Russia were “on the table.”

And London moved against Macedonia, with anti-government demonstrations led by European diplomats and promising “a war here like in Ukraine.” Macedonia is an important link on China’s “Maritime Silk Road” port-and-rail development corridor, and an opponent of anti-Russia sanctions. The attack against Macedonia is against the BRICS as a whole, which alliance is clearly giving Greece a live option to escape the murderous austerity and economic depression imposed on it by EU agencies.

The BRICS dynamic must prevail. The current U.S.-NATO policy of destroying the BRICS combination, encircling and confronting both Russia and China, is not only a bankrupt policy; it is leading toward thermonuclear war and potential human extinction.

Remove Obama—whose own party is in revolt against him over his pro-Wall Street and pro-London policies—and a new orientation for America toward the BRICS dynamic is possible.

Remove Obama—who today proclaimed Camden, New Jersey with its 15%-plus unemployment rate “a symbol of promise for the nation”—and Wall Street could be defeated, beginning with a new Glass-Steagall Act to throw the casino speculation out of banking.

Remove Obama and create a surge of credit for productivity and employment, using Alexander Hamilton’s credit policies—and the United States can join the BRICS in rebuilding the economies and broken-down labor forces of nations, including its own.