1) Who brought Mr. Gross on and had him running potential deals? That would be Jim Briscoe, who touted Brett 'bigly'.

Huh?  What is the intent of these questions:  That JB made a good pick then and that we should respect that now, or that JB made a bad pick then and that we just have to live with it?

2) If not for Brett and Pete, the lights would likely have been turned off over a year ago and we would have nothing to argue about.

If you are accusing JB of incompetence to justify his ouster, you must realize that such a claim must also extend to the whole board of directors as it was under JB.  He was not running the company in isolation.  If others on the board found a last-minute reason to dump JB to save the company, that is strong evidence to me that they are all guilty of negligence for failing to see what was coming and acting earlier.  They all had access to the same information.  Legally speaking, I don't think any of them have an excuse for putting the company on the edge of a cliff. 

3) Jim's award of options around the time of the 'deal' w/ NAK utterly DESTROYED the share structure...

I haven't looked into this, but you bring up ancient history made moot by the fact that winter came surprisingly early to that drilling program, ending it.  Had that not happened, we would be in an entirely different situation today, would we not?

4) JB told shareholders he was ready to drill and invited folks to participate in private placements to get at least $250K to start things off. Except, apparently, that's a terrible idea and we should never start drilling till we have at least $10m lined up. Ooops.

Yes, that is a good point.  But if JB is quilty for being too eager to get a drill into the ground at that time, does not the rest of his BODs share in that fault?  Did not all or most all of them have to give a nod of approval?  If so, none of them now deserve to be on the board either, excepting that none of them could have anticipated that the State Lands Commission would have taken five years to approve a most needed addition to claims. 

Also, we've been 'drill ready' for years and years and years.... except (again) not really until we have the entire land package in place, which only just occurred.

Well, again, you are missing the fact that those claims were applied for by JB five years before the granting.  More importantly, you are missing the fact that the claims are still not drill-ready without access across private land, a fact that may be seriously compromising our ability to secure a partner.  If this is so, who is better suited to negotiate a deal with the landowner?  BG who reportedly alienated the rancher when sent to make a deal years ago, or someone else having more in common with landowners in the area?