[ExI] I hate to say it but, I agree with Trump

[Keith Henson]

" *We can leave that closed while we work with Venezuela.*"

Spike, I don't think you understand refining oil. I used to work in a
refinery that processed Venezuelan oil. The oil is heavy and high in
sulfur. It takes a refinery designed and built for that kind of oil. Large
capacity fluid cracker, 4 cokers, and a huge capacity to remove sulfur. You
can't feed that kind of oil to a refinery not designed for it.

Keith

Best wishes,

Keith


On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 1:55 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> *From:* John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>
>
> *>**So why did we allow the danger to continue? *
>
>
>
> *>…Because although it was obvious to anybody who looked at a map, to get
> rid of that choke point we'd have to alter the physical geography of the
> entire Middle East…*
>
>
>
> *Nonsense.  Read on please.*
>
>
>
> *> **Ja, it only sunk their navy. *
>
>
>
> *>…A navy that was useless and* *ridiculous and never could've played a
> part in a modern war….*
>
>
>
> *It was valuable to world peace, in that it demonstrated that a surface
> navy is vulnerable to modern weapons.  This demonstration may have been
> what convinced Xi to avoid invasion of Taiwan.*
>
>
>
>  *> **It isn’t that hard to create tunnels in which oil pipes can be
> placed safely out of reach of air attack.*
>
>
>
> *>…It isn't hard to build a 750 mile long pipeline that is 100 feet
> underground?!*
>
>
>
>
>
> *It wouldn’t need to be that long.  John use some imagination.  Oil field,
> multiple rigs, multiple pipes, going various directions to some (possibly
> short) distance away to multiple sites.  A few miles of pipe would suffice,
> where the oil can be pumped into trucks and carried over land, across Saudi
> Arabi to the Med.  This would offer redundancy in case of attack.  I do not
> think Iran wants to start trouble with powerful neighbor by blasting oil
> trucks on Saudi Arabian roads. *
>
>
>
>
>
> *>…**Who is going to pay for that?*
>
>
>
> *Those countries which are selling oil.  While they are doing that,
> Venezuela, the USA and Canada build out oil infrastructure.  Shorter supply
> lines means lower cost.  Everybody wins, almost.  The countries on the west
> side of the Persian Gulf lose, but they have the option of bombing Tehran
> into the seventh century.  Iran can’t take them all on simultaneously.  *
>
>
>
> *Having theocratic Iran as a neighbor is part of the cost of doing
> business in the Middle East.*
>
>
>
> *Notice that with the strait mostly closed, the price of crude oil is
> lower than it was in May 2022, when the strait was open.  The Middle East
> has a lot of oil, but it doesn’t have all the oil in the world.  We can
> leave that closed while we work with Venezuela.*
>
>
>
>
>
> *>**I do invite you to look thru my comments in the ExI archives, and
> note that I do not comment on government policy. *
>
>
>
> *>…When a Democrat is president, government policy over immigration needs
> to change…*
>
>
>
> *Policy on illegal immigration doesn’t need to change.  It only needs to
> be enforced.  This is always true, regardless of what party controls what
> seat of power.*
>
>
>
> *>…  When a Democrat is president, government policy over vaccination
> needs to change…*
>
>
>
> *Why does the government have a policy on vaccination?  There’s nothing in
> the constitution which allows that.*
>
>
>
> *>… **When a Democrat is president, government policy over deficit
> spending needs to change…*
>
>
>
> *Regardless of who is president, government policy on deficit spending has
> been appalling.  The US government has no intention of stopping deficit
> spending until there is a general recognition that it cannot repay its
> debt.  I realized it some time ago, but people are still loaning money to
> the US government.  I cannot imagine why.*
>
>
>
> *> **I do however comment early and often on government corruption,*
>
>
>
> *>….Only when a Democrat is president. I remember the huge fuss you raised
> when Hunter Biden got a job at a hedge fund….*
>
>
>
> *No John, it wasn’t Hunter Biden.  He wasn’t in government.  I (and plenty
> of others) raised a huge fuss over a government official’s comment “…if the
> prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money…”  You do remember
> that, ja?  If one searches carefully, one might find a quid pro quo hiding
> in that comment somewhere.  This is corruption.*
>
>
>
> *>… compared with the gargantuan ASTRONOMICAL amount of corruption of the
> Trump administration….*
>
>
>
> *By all means, any corruption should be prosecuted.  No disagreement
> there.*
>
>
>
> *>…#1) **King Donald controls USA's cryptocurrency policy…  John K Clark*
>
>
>
> *Indeed?  A president makes law now?  When was the constitution overthrown
> please?  *
>
>
>
> *Congress make law.  Here’s the policy regarding cryptocurrency
> regulation:  *
>
>
>
> *https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48963/R48963.2.pdf
> <https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48963/R48963.2.pdf>*
>
>
>
> *Presidents don’t make law.  They can refuse to sign a law congress made,
> but that didn’t happen as far as I know.  Do you know otherwise John?  Do
> tell please.*
>
>
>
> *spike*
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20260903/fd83d5db/attachment-0001.htm>