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Me dino became very familiar with the original Star Trek cast for watching my favorite TV show during the Sixties.
That's why I found Bones and Jim in front of the "DAMN IT GYM" to be particularly funny.
Too bad it led a second row fulla moaners and groaners.

Been collecting these for a while now.

Yep. 👍

I understand that slightly different then you, I heard that Venezuela and Middle Est oil are similar enough to be processed at current facilities. Its our light crude from shale that require a retooling of the processing facilities. AI answer:

You're actually onto something real here, but the picture is more nuanced than a simple equivalence. Here's how it actually breaks down:
You're right about U.S. shale vs. heavy crude
Before the shale boom, U.S. refiners were designed to process heavy, lower-value crude from Canada, Venezuela, and the Middle East. They underwent over a decade of modifications to run more U.S. light-sweet shale grades. So your intuition is correct — it's actually the American shale crude that's the odd one out in the current refinery landscape. Bloomberg
But Venezuela ≠ Middle East crude — they're both "heavy sour" but not identical
This is where your premise needs a small correction. While both are classified as heavy sour, Arabian Gulf crudes are easier to run, require less blending, and offer more predictable yields. U.S. refiners can process Venezuelan crude, but often only within narrow operating windows and with higher costs. Arab News
Venezuelan crude is actually heavier and dirtier than most Middle Eastern grades. Merey crude from Venezuela's Orinoco Belt has among the lowest API gravity and highest sulfur content globally, requiring specialized refinery units to break down the heaviest molecules and remove impurities. Less than half of U.S. refineries have a coker. OilPrice.com
The strategic logic still holds, though
U.S. refinery capacity is designed to process heavy crude oils like Canadian or Venezuelan crude. The refineries that can handle Venezuelan oil — particularly Valero, Exxon, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and PBF Energy, which have the most coking capacity — are the same ones built to handle Middle Eastern heavy sour grades. So Venezuelan crude competes with and can substitute for Middle Eastern oil in many facilities, even if it's not a perfect drop-in replacement. Visual CapitalistBloomberg
The real bottleneck
The limitation isn't refinery compatibility — it's Venezuelan production capacity itself. Venezuelan crude exports have typically fluctuated between 700,000 and 900,000 barrels per day when flows are relatively stable. At this scale, Venezuelan crude cannot replace Arabian Gulf supply — even if every Venezuelan barrel were redirected to the U.S., it would only supplement U.S. heavy sour intake rather than replace it. Arab News
And of course, last night's earthquakes hit a country whose pipeline network had not been updated in 50 years, with PDVSA estimating it would take $58 billion to get pipelines back to peak condition — before any earthquake damage is factored in. OilPrice.com
So the short version: your instinct about refinery compatibility is largely correct — the heavy sour infrastructure is the common thread between Venezuelan and Middle Eastern crude, and U.S. light shale is actually the disruptor. But Venezuela is more of a supplement to Middle Eastern supply than a true replacement, and the earthquakes have just made even that supplement harder to realize.

Iran is more desperate to sell oil and move it out through Hormuz.
Compared to WW2, this is nothing.
Venezuela's "oil" is not similar to the Mideast oil.
It's extremely heavy oil.
It is more difficult (expensive) to get and must be refined in very different facilities.
It was not thought to be a reliable resource in the short term by those who understand it.
Lots to be done to reassure the oil companies that investment in Venezuela is worthwhile.

Precarious times, I see many things all breaking at once….

I like this post by Dob.
Now I do not have any inside sources, I rely on the usual media, exclude NYT, BBC and such of course, but Dob's descriptions rings true.

Statements from Trump need interpretation. But stand back and it appears he knows what he is doing.
Statements from IRGC or the Iran government appear scattered, as if they neither know what they are doing nor what is happening.
"deeply corrupt". Yes, some/many of them. We read about the antics of family members in LA, the Riviera and other flesh-pots. We see behavior indicating much money but no culture, no responsibilities, no shame.

There was a time when I had a number of friends and acquaintances from Iran, all were decent and cultured. Perhaps Trump can end this 50-year long nightmare for the good people of Iran, as well as end the threats.

The real game playing out is something else entirely, and people should be looking elsewhere to understand what’s truly happening.
Few days ago, one faction of the regime’s gangsters has been faking letters supposedly from Mojtaba Khamenei to claim that negotiations with the US were personally approved by him.
Others quickly learned the trick and started playing the same game. Today, one of the rivals claimed they have access to Mojtaba’s confidential letters with the current negotiating team. It turned into a full-blown public shitshow.
Honestly, it was both ridiculous and entertaining. The pigs are turning on each other. Let me lay out the full picture for you. Khamenei, to coup-proof his rule, massively empowered the IRGC and turned it into a powerful state-within-a-state. But then he became afraid of his own creation, so he deliberately prevented power from concentrating in any single hand and allowed different competing cartels to form inside the IRGC.
Most of the top figures in these cartels are deeply corrupt, ideology is just a facade for them. At the same time, he personally cultivated a loyal base from the poorest and most broken layers of society: fanatical, powerless people who were extremely loyal to him personally and would attack anyone on his command like rabid dogs. After his death, the IRGC clearly took full control of the country, but they are far from united.
They’re now openly fighting each other for the real seat of power.
Trump, with his deal-making style and the huge carrot of money, especially after the naval blockade pushed them into real poverty and begging, has brilliantly pushed these corrupt elements forward. This has created open clashes with the more ideological factions.
One of these hardliner cartels belongs to Saeed Jalili and includes figures like the cleric Mahmoud Nabavian, a sitting MP.
Today, Nabavian went on state TV and announced he wanted to reveal Mojtaba Khamenei’s confidential letters criticizing the negotiating team and the current deal. He started reading them live, but they cut him off mid-sentence. The network later called it a serious violation, announced legal action, and even one of the directors resigned and was rebuked.
This was their last desperate attempt to stop the negotiating team from reaching Geneva. But it failed. Just hours later, the other side, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and his crew, still made it to Geneva.
A few days ago, they even put the approval of this Memorandum of Understanding to a vote in the Supreme National Security Council. Everyone approved it except one person, and many believe that lone dissenter was Saeed Jalili, from the same cartel as Nabavian.
Meanwhile, another IRGC cartel, Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, tried to sabotage the surrenderist negotiators’ trip to Geneva by claiming they had closed the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM immediately clapped back and said the Strait is wide open (and ships are moving freely).
Perfect own-goal. Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He understands these animals better than anyone. He’s weakening the regime from within, without firing a single shot. Just as he predicted, as soon as the corrupt ones smelled real money, they sold out the entire regime and its ideology without hesitation. Let the man cook, trust the process.

Reflection MEME/EMEM “ThinQ mirror” Q (truthsocial.com)
Posted by Dobrien 2 days, 2 hours ago to Entertainment
You might like these..

An excellent post. It helps keep things clear in mind, instead of just counting on the clips gotten from media.

Thanks -

No offense to you. Yes the midterms are the focus. The only way to remove the corrupt judges is for congress to impeach them. Voter ID,Paper ballots, same day hand counted, no mail in votes. Save America!!!

Both articles are a great read! I learned a lot in a short time and the history makes more sense.

I totally agree with your premise. Human history is a bloody mess and lands were often traded as the result of these messes.

When one looks at the period of history from 1753..1763, during the French/Indian war in the colonies, one sees there was chaotic mayhem going on on all sides. The indigenous peoples were making deals with the French, with the British and with each other to see who could conquer lands better. Forts were built, conquered, reconquered and many destroyed, while lands were then traded back and forth.

None of the parties involved were innocent in the process. That's just the way it was. I accept it.

Who governs well is probably the greater factor in who has the land. If it is governed well, it is stable and people thrive. If it is governed poorly, well then there will continue to be upheaval.

Sidenote: George Washington learned a LOT about managing battles and logistics from the French Indian war.

Here's a historical review of the Iran regime's activities that the same author wrote in reply to comments on the above article:
https://blog.portfolioarmor.com/p/the...

Thanks for this FFA.

Nicely argued, there is more good sense here than I have seen most anywhere else.
Trump has surrendered, Iran needs more bombing, capitalist/imperialism must be shattered, etc. All tough talk nonsense.
Recall, this war started in 1979.

Instead we should look at what a sensible/realistic end to hostilities can look like and how to get there from here.
Maybe Trump is doing that, almost alone.

Well done! Thanks for the posting.

You're right, of course. But I admit I've gone from expecting results to hoping for results. I know these things take time, but if the Dems regain control of either the Senate or the House, so much of what's going on could come to a complete halt (or at least slow down). Trump will be inundated with everything from subpoenas to impeachments to nuisance lawsuits. The more I think about it, the more I believe that this coming November is the deadline, not November 2028.

Your post gave me the idea . . .

Very nice bro!!!

You know better than to react emotionally. When people do that they lose the ability to use reason and logic. The Judges are corrupted and need to be replaced and then tried for treason. That comes with a mid term sweep, congress can impeach the installed anal plugs. Many Grand juries are seeing the evidence , complicated cases can last 1-2 years. They are secret and it follows the rule of law.
Trump is rearranging the World . Eliminating their money sources and the terrorizing armies. Arresting and convicting will happen but removing the deep states power and controll is paramount.

Me dino blows his mighty nose at such libtarded TDS attacks.

I understand your frustration, I've got it too, thankfully not to the level of becoming dangerous, at least not yet. I believe our life experiences help tune our levels of frustration. Vietnam tuned mine, especially when they wouldn't allow us to fire our artillery when guys were screaming for it. And a home invasion robbery of about $100K tuned it some more. I think I know what's coming under Trump's lead that helps control my reaction to my oun frustration. He's been right so far. If he acted now he might miss some really important prosecutions. I strongly beleive they are diligently working on it.

Give that concrete commode an extra flush, as I am most certain that it is always full of sh*t.

Great collection! The last one sums it up best. It all started in 2008 with Barry.

My patience level can be summed up by a poster and t-shirt I saw a long time ago. Two buzzards are sitting on a branch, and one says "Patience, my ass. I'm gonna go kill something." I'm scared to death that these things will drag on long enough that nothing ultimately will get done.