Ethanol, Oil

What I've been lead to believe:
1) Kosovo was a good war
2) Mugabe is an evil man for attempting land reform
But:

counterpunch

How the Nobel Peace Prize Was Won
During the 1999 war, NATO’s attacks were having little effect on Yugoslav forces. Through the use of extensive camouflage and decoys, Yugoslav troops had managed to emerge largely unscathed by the end NATO’s bombing campaign. U.S. General Wesley Clark led the NATO campaign, and he pressed military and diplomatic contacts from other NATO countries for agreement to widen the scope of bombing. Clark was a strong advocate of bombing civilian targets, and at one meeting he rose from his chair and banged the table with his fist, bellowing, “I’ve got to get the maximum violence out of this campaign – now!” (1) Under Clark’s direction, the air campaign rapidly took on the character of sustained terror bombing.

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Zimbabwe's inclusion is timely. Britain and the US are again turning up the heat in an effort to topple the stubbornly independent Mugabe regime. The book details the brutal economic warfare that has been waged against this former British colony over the last several decades. It also debunks and/or explains the many myths surrounding the controversial project of land reform, the cornerstone of Zimbabwe's economic democratization.

Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit (Paperback)
by Gregory Elich
- Zimbabwe also described as an early Oil-Shock devastated nation

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Another side of Ethanol..
biofuels: Alcohol is being attacked by OilCapital ??
David Bloom "Alcohol can be a Gas"
Corn: the mash end product from Ethanol production is then fed to animals. The food value is not diminished, only the starch has been removed. So Corn-Ethanol should not increase meat prices, nor compete for land. Is this true?
The recent 'consensus' that BioFuel is a dangerous foolishness that will lead to 1) Destruction of Forests 2) Increase in food prices ... and that the yields can never drive Industry - Bloom suggests that this is propaganda from OilIndustry...
But: Bloome has little Text on his sites, just Videos and plugs for his book and $250 workshops.
My reaction is: Theory is fine but if TropicalForests are actually being cleared, and FoodPrices are actually climbing steeply, then we have an Actual problem.
Are food price increases actually independent of corn for ethanol?
DB says:

Crops for alcohol can be produced from swamps (Raupo is 3 x more productive than maize), dry lands, second grade agricultural land, sewerage ponds, cellulose (timber, hemp…) or starch, even seaweed
• Highest production comes from organic, permaculture mixed species regimes.
• No herbicides, chemical fertilizers or pesticides!
• Water based or marshy production can produce up to 40,000 litres per hectare – that can fire up at least 20 cars for a year

ecoshow
- seems fine, Im not sure that Permaculture acts as a great source for massive starch for massive Ethanol fermenters.
Sewage ponds: algae produce oil, not starch. They can produce high oil yields, but species variations make for large yield fluctuations in open ponds, and sealed units remain in the interesting industrial stage...
Raupo from swamps sounds great, but industrial production from swamps remains to be demonstrated .
A favourite number: 8 Hectares of reeds filter sewage from 1000 people. It would be nifty if the reeds could feed Yeasts for Ethanol, but has it been demonstrated on Industrial scale? Is Swamp harvesting a good idea?
IF permaculture was used THEN biofuels WOULD be great.

DB does seem to be doing the enthusiasts 'splutter' here - chattering about disparate things, throw in 'Permaculture' and 'soil improvement' and 'buy my book'...
I would take Blume with a grain of salt, but never underestimate the Negative-Propaganda potential from OilCapital

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guardian
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. ... Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.

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Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 % and 50 % more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. ... biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised. The research team found that 3 to 5 % of the nitrogen in fertiliser was converted and emitted.

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- in the end OilCapital is bigger than CarCapital - especially now that GM/Ford/Chrys are about broke - "small cars = small profits" - followed that one too long?

IndustrialCapital - based on Luxury, Indolence, Excitement
Luxury: ............. 100m² per head homes, cooled to 20° (heating may be a necessity, not a luxury)
Indolence:.......... reliance on piped water,power, trucked food
Excitement: .......100kph has nothing to do with transport, its simply excitement, fun, stimulation...

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OPEC expects global demand to rise 550,000 barrels a day this year, to 86.5 million barrels a day.
For many analysts, these expectations are still too optimistic. A growing number of independent experts now say they believe that global oil consumption may fall this year, for the first time since 1993.

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The model:
oil price (op) reduced by starting up spare capacity
op increased by demand
op reduced by recession
recession inc by oil price
but there is a floor, a minimum that industrial society needs???
but some large demands are frivolous : eg 100kW cars, 10kW airconditioners ???, 'needed' only to perpetuate the machine.

Question: Capital-ism starting with double-entry bookkeeping in Florence/Venice C15?
developed as 'Pirate' system with wooden sailing ships training canon on the non-iron world?
Then as Oil-turbine ships launching cluster-bomb jets on wedding parties ashore.
How much is present Capital actually Oil-Capital, how much Pirate Capital?

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org

Lack of investment in new production projects, plus ongoing depletion and rising decline rates, probably ensure that we’ve now seen the all-time peak. It was in July 2008. Mark your calendars. That month was probably also, as I wrote here, the end of aggregate world economic growth as it has thus far been defined.

Just post my 60th birthday. Last few years I have been charting the coming fall, but I foolishly only recently realised that the final years will require a few hundredK$ to survive with any grace, as compassionfatigue withers the western soul. Absent that capital, I am heading for the Dock of the Bay, watching those young seals play...
compare 1984 Aid concert concern with 1994 Rwanda/Congo indifference, now in 2009 who gives a shit? [but aid is in the Irrawady delta?]

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Recessions as devices designed by the top-layer to shake out the lower layers??
eg Venezuela suffers when op drops below $70 ??
lots of $E8 investors get shook but the $E9 investors hang on?? is collapse deliberate?

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As I've often said, Capital has it over CentralPlanning because Corporations can fail.
The startup is not much different: Either a grey banker, or a grey commissar gives the go-ahead for a project. But under Stalinism-CPE the enterprise can't ever fail. Under Capital, we end up with the best shoes. Bad shoe factories fail. But if Capital ties all its lenders together with credit-swap-hedges and becomes too big to fail, then where are we gonna get those nifty trainers?
(I buy mine in 3rd World knockoff markets for $8, beats the $150+ asked in the 'Advanced West' for the 'genuine' brands.
Can we continue treating Capital Corporations as persons with privacy? Glastnost, has it ever worked?

the International Monetary Fund said in August that Iran would face unsustainable deficits should prices for its oil fall to $75 a barrel.
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Democrat Barack Obama said Saturday the winds of change were blowing across America as he roused monster crowds totalling more than 175,000 in the Republican "red" state of Missouri.
Imagine the feeling when BHO is Diebold-Defeated?
Still, it wont make much difference in Gaza. The same permanent bases will grow in Iraq.
Still 'n' all I'm impressed by BHO's origins. Interesting to see him up. But not a 'Green New' Deal guy
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Ethanol, Oil