Electric_Daisy_Carnival_Mexico_se_amplifico_con_PK_Sound

Electric Daisy Carnival Mexico in February will be the Global Pulse of Dance Music When it Returns to Mexico City – Listen on Electric Daisy Carnival Live

by Electric Daisy Carnival Live

Electric Daisy Carnival Mexico 2026 is officially locked in for February 20–22, 2026, and it is shaping up to be one of the most important electronic music

Source: Electric Daisy Carnival Mexico in February will be the Global Pulse of Dance Music When it Returns to Mexico City

One Handed

On The Rampage was Fugly for Three Quarters, Ruthless When It Mattered — Rams Secure No. 5 Seed in 37–20 Win — I Welcome Going To Carolina This Week

by Don LichtermanLos Angeles RamsOn The Rampage

There are wins… and then there are wins that meet the standard.

Unless the Rams are winning by 30 or 40, I do not consider it a true statement game — and Sunday’s 37–20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals lived in uncomfortable limbo for most of the afternoon. Yes, the Rams ultimately pulled away. Yes, the win secured the No. 5 seed in the NFC Playoffs. And yes — it was still far uglier than it ever needed to be.

For nearly three quarters, this game was an emotional tax on Rams fans that should have been paid off by halftime.

A Game That Should Have Been Over Early — Wasn’t. There was an expectation heading into this matchup that Sean McVay was rolling out the full arsenal. That did not happen. What unfolded instead was a strangely sluggish, mistake-prone offensive showing that allowed a 3-14 Cardinals team to hang around far longer than acceptable.

Dropped passes. Miscommunications. Missed opportunities. Drives that stalled for no reason other than execution failures.

At one point in the third quarter, the Rams were trailing — and the frustration boiled over for good reason. Easy catches were clanked off hands, including misses by tight ends and wideouts who will be expected to deliver in January. Matthew Stafford, meanwhile, occasionally reverted to those puzzling half-throws — balls floated five yards in front of open receivers, creating unnecessary incompletions and momentum killers.

When you are paid millions of dollars to perform eight months a year — and your professional shelf life is often seven seasons or fewer — attention to detail is not optional. It is the job.

Catching the football is the job. Catch the Ball and you know what I mean, I mean the ones my nephew would catch if thrown to him should be caught by the professional’s on the Rams team during those 8 months.

The Adams Void Is Still Real. This game once again highlighted how much Davante Adams is missed within this offense. His absence forces Stafford to attempt tighter, more dangerous throws to Atwell and Smith, shrinking windows and magnifying mistakes. The Rams are simply at their best when two elite wide receiver outlets are on the field.

We have seen this formula before — Cooper Kupp paired with Odell Beckham Jr. produced championship football. Now, Puka Nacua is that cornerstone, but he still needs a second gravitational force to fully unlock the offense.

Puka, of course, remains unreal.

Ten receptions. 76 yards. Another highlight-reel, intentional one-handed touchdown grab — because of course he did. He continues to look like a receiver who simply does not drop footballs, regardless of how difficult the attempt. And as always, he played with infectious energy, high-fiving fans along the first rows of the stands like a kid living his dream.

But Puka needs help.
And this offense needs Adams.

The Turning Point: Flip the Switch, End the Game

OK. Now. Once the Rams finally decided to play real football, the game ended quickly.

After Arizona briefly grabbed a 20–16 lead in the third quarter, Los Angeles responded with ruthless precision:

• Stafford to Colby Parkinson — 21-yard touchdown
• Stafford to Tyler Higbee — 22-yard touchdown
• Stafford to Parkinson again — 1-yard touchdown

They finally all caught the ball. They caught every pass finally in that 4th quarter without missing any and in essence, earning their money. It is not hard if you do the work.

That is 21 unanswered points, fueled by defensive stops, pressure packages, and a quarterback who suddenly remembered he is still one of the most dangerous passers in football.

The defensive backs were consistently left hung out to dry. On multiple occasions, they were isolated in one-on-one coverage that directly led to Arizona’s biggest plays. There were no safeties in sight on two of the Cardinals’ touchdowns, and to be honest, Jacoby Brissett delivered several excellent passes that no defender realistically could have reached.

Witherspoon and Curl did miss a few plays, but they also play the most difficult position in football. Witherspoon, in particular, clearly knew he made mistakes — you could see it on his face on the sideline.

Stafford finished with 259 yards and four touchdowns, passing Dan Marino for seventh all-time in career touchdown passes — a milestone quietly buried beneath the chaos of the first three quarters.

Tyler Higbee returned with authority despite a few early drops. He finished the game as the Rams’ leading receiver in yardage, catching five of his six targets for 91 yards and a touchdown, including a critical fourth-quarter score that slammed the door shut.

Higbee did have an early drop and missed a difficult catch just before halftime in the Rams’ 37–20 win over the Cardinals. However, overall, he delivered a strong performance. His final catch rate for the game was an impressive 83.3%.

His overall performance was considered a success in his return from a six-game injury absence and he proved to be a reliable target for quarterback Matthew Stafford when the team pulled away in the second half. 

Finally, the defense erased Arizona in the fourth quarter, allowing only 50 yards of offense and forcing multiple punts and a turnover on downs.

When the Rams turned it on — it was over.

Which is exactly the problem.

They didn’t need three quarters to do it.

Which is exactly the problem.

Officiating Wasn’t the Story — Execution Was. This was not a ref-ball game. There were no controversial flags, no momentum-changing calls, no blown challenges. The only penalties that stood out were the kind that scream lack of focus — delay-of-game situations and sloppy procedural mistakes that simply should not exist in January football. The ones when they can’t even get the play off because of something stupid.

This loss of precision is fixable — but it must be corrected immediately.

Playoff Path: Carolina Awaits. Now, the Rams head to Carolina for the Wild Card round — and it is a matchup that should be handled decisively. I welcome everything about this game. Including having to travel to Charlotte.

Weather will not be a factor. Talent will be. And if the Rams show up focused and complete, this is a game they should win comfortably. The blueprint is already visible with our pressure defense, efficient Stafford, Puka being Puka, and tighter execution across the board.

But they cannot afford another three-quarter warm-up act in the postseason.

January football does not forgive sloppiness.
January football ends seasons.

The Rams are talented enough to make a deep run — but only if they start playing like a team that understands how rare this window really is.

Because fugly wins still count…

But championships demand dominance. We need to get back to dominating. After all, the commissioner practically pleaded with the team because we were winning so easily — and now the entire league feels like it is on equal ground. That is my new conspiracy theory that I am feeding you readers, but in reality, there is no true frontrunner.

If you consider Denver and Seattle to be the No. 1 seeds and, in essence, the top teams, they are also winning in fugly ways. This postseason is wide open. And if the Rams play the way we did before last month ended, we will crush every team we face.

Overall, they need to execute the full game plan — which means catching the football and eliminating illegal procedure penalties. Get the play off. That is the easiest thing to do in football. Please stop messing that up. Make no mistakes. In essence, executing the game plan means catching the ball, protecting it without fumbling, and not throwing passes directly into defenders’ chests. It is not a high bar to meet if you do the work.

venezeula-crisis-1502461948

The Real War Beneath Venezuela: Why Oil — and the Dirtiest Kind — Is Driving the Next Global Power Struggle

by Don LichtermanOn The RampageSunset Daily News

For months, public discourse has circled around Venezuela as though the country’s accelerating geopolitical tension is rooted in democracy, sanctions relief, humanitarian concern, or regional stability. None of those explanations survive serious scrutiny. The driving force behind the renewed international interest in Venezuela is far simpler—and far more uncomfortable.

It is oil. I said from day one on The Morning Joe forum or blog or whatever it is, that bombing small ships was meant to escalate this situation in order to seize that oil.

Not good oil. Not easy oil. Not profitable oil in the conventional sense.

Comparison: Venezuela vs. Canada (Keystone Slate)

Feature Venezuelan Extra-HeavyCanadian Bitumen (Keystone/WCS)
Physical StateSlightly more fluid due to warmer underground temperatures.Virtually solid at room temperature; requires more heating/dilution to flow.
ExtractionMostly deep underground; requires steam injection or horizontal drilling.Both surface mining and deep steam injection (SAGD).
Environmental ImpactHighest greenhouse gas emissions per barrel in the world due to flaring and decay.High emissions, but significantly lower than Venezuela’s due to better technology.
TransportationPrimarily by ocean tanker; five-day trip to U.S. Gulf Coast.Primarily by pipeline (like Keystone) or rail; requires extensive land infrastructure.

Why they are direct competitors

Refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast are essentially “heavy oil addicts.” Because they invested billions in complex equipment to process this specific type of “bad” oil, they must keep their tanks full to remain profitable. 

  • Market Substitution: When Venezuelan production collapsed due to sanctions and mismanagement, Canadian oil became the primary replacement for U.S. refiners.
  • The “Pipeline vs. Tanker” Debate: Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline argue it would have provided a secure, “cleaner” version of the same heavy oil that the U.S. is now occasionally forced to seek from Venezuela to meet refining demand.
  • Competitive Edge: As of 2026, if Venezuelan production continues to recover, it could actually undercut Canadian oil because shipping it by sea is often cheaper than the high costs and capacity limits of land pipelines. 

In summary, while the oil is the same “type,” the Canadian version is considered a more stable and environmentally “improved” alternative to the Venezuelan version, which suffers from decaying infrastructure and higher carbon intensity. 

What the world is maneuvering over is some of the worst crude on Earth.

Venezuela’s reserves—technically the largest proven oil reserves on the planet—are overwhelmingly composed of extra-heavy, high-sulfur, metal-laden sludge pulled from the Orinoco Belt. This is not “black gold.” It is geological tar. It barely flows. It destroys equipment. It produces more emissions per barrel than almost any other petroleum source in existence. And yet, it has suddenly become strategically priceless.

The reason is not that the oil is valuable on its own. The reason is that the world’s refining system was redesigned over the last four decades to depend on this exact kind of garbage crude—and now it is addicted.

Why Venezuelan Oil Is “Bad” Oil. The Orinoco Belt’s petroleum is geologically young, chemically unstable, and physically hostile to infrastructure. It typically measures between 8° and 10° API gravity—meaning it is barely liquid at reservoir conditions. It contains extreme sulfur concentrations, corrosive metals, and heavy molecular chains that cannot be refined in ordinary facilities.

In practical terms, Venezuelan oil:

  • Must be diluted just to move through pipelines
  • Cannot be refined in standard distillation towers
  • Requires specialized “cracking” equipment to turn sludge into fuel
  • Generates some of the highest lifecycle carbon emissions per barrel in the world

It is the petroleum equivalent of radioactive waste—yet global refining systems have been purpose-built to handle it.

Over the past thirty years, refineries in Louisiana and Texas invested hundreds of billions of dollars into complex cracking units designed specifically to process extra-heavy sour crude. Those refineries are not flexible. They are not interchangeable. They are “locked” into heavy oil feedstock to remain profitable.

This created a structural addiction.

When Venezuelan production collapsed under sanctions, mismanagement, and infrastructure decay, the United States replaced it almost entirely with Canadian oil sands bitumen—the same type of sludge, delivered via pipeline and rail rather than tanker.

This substitution kept Gulf Coast refining alive.

But it also created a geopolitical problem: Canada became the primary life support system for America’s heavy-oil refining architecture.

Which brings us to Keystone.

Keystone Was Never About “New” Oil, Keystone XL was never about creating demand. It was about securing a cleaner, more stable, more predictable version of the same “bad oil” that Venezuelan fields produce.

Chemically, Canadian bitumen and Venezuelan extra-heavy crude are near twins. Both are tar-like, high-sulfur, difficult to refine, and carbon-intensive. The difference is not what they are—it is how they are handled.

Canada modernized. Venezuela decayed.

Canada invested in emissions reduction, infrastructure maintenance, spill containment, and ESG governance. Venezuela dismantled technical expertise, allowed refineries to collapse, burned off natural gas as waste, and allowed pipelines to rot.

As of 2026, Canadian heavy oil produces less than half the emissions per barrel of Venezuelan crude.

Which means the oil itself is not the core problem.

The system managing it is.

Why Venezuela Is Suddenly “Back on the Table”. Venezuela’s refining infrastructure is in catastrophic condition. Its major complexes—Amuay and Cardón—operate at roughly 20 percent capacity. Gas flaring is rampant. Oil spills are routine. Diluent imports are unreliable. PDVSA lost much of its technical workforce. The country bleeds production efficiency.

Yet the world is still circling Venezuela because it holds one strategic advantage:

It can ship heavy oil by sea cheaper than Canada can ship it by land.

If Venezuela’s production recovers, its tanker-based logistics could undercut pipeline-constrained Canadian supply. That single cost differential is enough to redraw energy trade flows.

Which means Venezuelan oil is no longer just “bad oil.”

It is competitive bad oil.

And competitive bad oil destabilizes alliances.

The Hidden Upgrade War, behind the scenes, Venezuela is not trying to “modernize” for sustainability. It is trying to make its sludge saleable.

This has triggered a quiet arms race in upgrading technology:

  • Synthetic crude upgraders that convert tar into 32° API oil
  • Hydrogenation processes that remove sulfur and metals
  • Aquaconversion systems that partially refine oil underground
  • Steam injection and in-situ chemical flooding to improve extraction
  • Downhole catalytic processing that upgrades crude before it ever reaches the surface

These systems are capital-intensive, technologically complex, and politically dependent on Western partnerships—exactly why Chevron, Eni, and Repsol are now re-embedded inside Venezuela.

This is not recovery.

It is strategic rearmament of oil capacity.

This Is Not About Energy — It Is About Refining Survival

Heavy-oil refineries cannot pivot to light sweet crude. They cannot easily retool. They cannot afford to idle.

They need sludge.

So the geopolitical competition is not about oil demand—it is about refinery feedstock survival. Whoever controls heavy crude controls the refining core of the Western fuel system.

That is the war beneath Venezuela.

Not democracy. Not humanitarian relief. Not ideology.

It is about who feeds the machines that keep gasoline flowing.

And the machines demand the dirtiest oil on Earth.

Which is why Venezuela—despite producing some of the worst petroleum on the planet—has once again become one of the most dangerous strategic chess pieces in global energy politics.