On Friday, the Biden administration released a report from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) regarding the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The DNI report concluded that the operation that killed Khashoggi, who wrote columns critical of the Saudi regime, was ordered by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS).
I feel as if I can't get away from the almighty dollar controlling all....the money 'trumps' the value of human life....this saddens me for I am one of the few people I know that would walk away from anything that is abhorrent to me and I find the murder of Jamal Khashoggi abhorrent....disappointed in the Biden administration and our new Secretary of State....I had hoped that things would be different...
This weak condemnation of Saudi Arabia's actions and the Biden administration's unilateral decision to carry out an airstrike in Syria are a microcosm of our involvement in the Middle East.
Trump once owned a yacht called 'The Trump Princess.' It was originally called the 'Nabila,' but was renamed by Trump after he bought it from the Sultan of Brunei in 1988 (who had *just* purchased the yacht from the man it was designed and built for: Adnan Khashoggi, cousin of Jamal.) Just a couple of years later in 1991, Trump resold the yacht at to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. The Yacht is currently called 'Kingdom 5KR.'
This is extremely unfortunate but I can't say I'm surprised. With as much oil as Saudi Arabia has, you can quite literally get away with murder and nothing will happen to you. That's so sad and I feel awful for the Khashoggi family and journalists everywhere who are dedicated to providing the truth. You and journalists everywhere willing to tell the truth need to be careful. You won't be afforded any protections by our government.
We fight wars for Oil though no one wants to admit it, so this is just part of the game.
However damn the 1%. Long before the freeze in Texas, gas prices were going up just as the MAGA said they would. For what real reason? To make Biden look bad. Our gas prices are up 62 cents per gallon today since Biden took office.
I smell MBS in this as well. How can they bite the oil hand that feeds us and our struggle to drive, drive, drive. Ask Jared Kushner, he has the same smell...
Where is truth? Where is memory? Where is democracy? Let us remind all the "never forgetters" that 9/11 was planned and executed by a Saudi, Osama bin Laden, using Saudi money. How are all of these "patriots" not up in arms and screaming from the rooftop that MSB murdered a reporter employed by U.S. newspaper? Where is the shame? Where is the outrage? I can see hypocrisy clearly but nothing but oil and money beyond that.
Bob Woodward holding onto all of this info: discuss.
As dirt poor people around the globe suffer and struggle every single day of their lives to get ahead, a$holes like MBS and the US pretend they are better and know what’s best for the world. Makes me sad to see the true values of my country’s politicians. Money is just NOT everything. Yes I may scream and complain if my IRA is worthless overnight but then my life will be the same as most people struggling on this planet. Except I will have had a far better quality of life.
Biden ran on undoing Trump’s damage. Yes there is a lot of damage to be undone and he has begun the long and difficult process but one does tend to lose faith in Biden’s willingness and resolve to do so when he so seriously drops the ball on the horrific murder AND DISMEMBERMENT of a journalist at the hands of the Saudi Crown Prince. TBH I never had that much faith in Biden’s resolve so I can’t honestly say I’m surprised by this. Biden has repeatedly shown us who he is and what he’s willing to do. This Khashoggi situation is exactly what I expected from Biden.
The US has been the Saudis' submissive since we pretty much established the House of Saud in the 1930s. (I'm going by memory, so some details may be off, but they're not all that important in the greater scheme of things.) Originally, of course, it was to have a stable state to ensure the free, lucrative flow of Saudi oil.
Meanwhile, the US state's primary role is to ensure that Big Business' -- in this case, obviously, Big Oil's -- vested interests were supported. Like, when our foreign service boasts about making the world safe for democracy they mean making the world safe for primarily American capitalists' interests. (Since the Bolshevik Revolution that also included ensuring that there was no alternative to capitalism even if it meant exaggerating the communist threat. I'd dare say that the post-WWII witch hunt was in large part a purge of New Deal functionaries whose acts proved that there was in fact an alternative to lawless capitalism.)
Back to the Saudis: The deal nowadays is we give them money for oil and much if not most of the money comes back in financing our debt. Up to a point, our national debt is less of a problem than it appears because of the safety cushion provided by the Saudis. A related problem is that Wall Street learned that debt is more lucrative for them than lending money that can actually grow the economy; Reagan essentially gave Wall Street the go ahead. Fun factoid: More and more the GDP is private sector debt which, when you think about it either doesn't belong in the GDP or, if it does, there should be an asterix and footnote to explain that while the GDP was once goods and services, it's now goods, services and debt. Or put it this way: 3% growth isn't what it used to be. Once good, now kind of meaningless.
So the Saudis' return of our oil money is essential to keeping that machine going. The policies needed to ween ourselves off that addiction -- via legal control of Wall Street via, say, taxation or a Green New Deal -- are essentially DOA -- at least at this time -- because they would negatively affect the vested interests whom the GOP and corporate Dems are paid to serve.
That's one third rail. Related is that what I said: the US must always submit to the Saudis. No POTUS of either party, no matter what they may say on the campaign trail, can or will take any action against the Saudis. Or put it this way: What Biden and Blinken have done is about as much as any US government can do. Indeed, the American state serves the Saudis far more and better than they serve the American people.
Sorry to say, despite mainstream journalism, that's how the nation actually works. And will work until enough of us take enough action to use such agency as we have to put in power a progressive state. We can do it, maybe, if we have the will.
Once again, the US says you can do whatever you want, as long as you have enough money.
I feel as if I can't get away from the almighty dollar controlling all....the money 'trumps' the value of human life....this saddens me for I am one of the few people I know that would walk away from anything that is abhorrent to me and I find the murder of Jamal Khashoggi abhorrent....disappointed in the Biden administration and our new Secretary of State....I had hoped that things would be different...
This weak condemnation of Saudi Arabia's actions and the Biden administration's unilateral decision to carry out an airstrike in Syria are a microcosm of our involvement in the Middle East.
This is just an interesting bit of Trump history.
Trump once owned a yacht called 'The Trump Princess.' It was originally called the 'Nabila,' but was renamed by Trump after he bought it from the Sultan of Brunei in 1988 (who had *just* purchased the yacht from the man it was designed and built for: Adnan Khashoggi, cousin of Jamal.) Just a couple of years later in 1991, Trump resold the yacht at to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. The Yacht is currently called 'Kingdom 5KR.'
Fantastic summary of the money links to Saudi power. My take on Trump's CPAC ulterior motives to raise cash https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/donald-in-disney-world
Neoliberalism at its finest.
This is extremely unfortunate but I can't say I'm surprised. With as much oil as Saudi Arabia has, you can quite literally get away with murder and nothing will happen to you. That's so sad and I feel awful for the Khashoggi family and journalists everywhere who are dedicated to providing the truth. You and journalists everywhere willing to tell the truth need to be careful. You won't be afforded any protections by our government.
We fight wars for Oil though no one wants to admit it, so this is just part of the game.
However damn the 1%. Long before the freeze in Texas, gas prices were going up just as the MAGA said they would. For what real reason? To make Biden look bad. Our gas prices are up 62 cents per gallon today since Biden took office.
I smell MBS in this as well. How can they bite the oil hand that feeds us and our struggle to drive, drive, drive. Ask Jared Kushner, he has the same smell...
Where is truth? Where is memory? Where is democracy? Let us remind all the "never forgetters" that 9/11 was planned and executed by a Saudi, Osama bin Laden, using Saudi money. How are all of these "patriots" not up in arms and screaming from the rooftop that MSB murdered a reporter employed by U.S. newspaper? Where is the shame? Where is the outrage? I can see hypocrisy clearly but nothing but oil and money beyond that.
Bob Woodward holding onto all of this info: discuss.
As dirt poor people around the globe suffer and struggle every single day of their lives to get ahead, a$holes like MBS and the US pretend they are better and know what’s best for the world. Makes me sad to see the true values of my country’s politicians. Money is just NOT everything. Yes I may scream and complain if my IRA is worthless overnight but then my life will be the same as most people struggling on this planet. Except I will have had a far better quality of life.
yet another example of how the US operates by the Golden Rule: He who has the most gold rules.
Biden ran on undoing Trump’s damage. Yes there is a lot of damage to be undone and he has begun the long and difficult process but one does tend to lose faith in Biden’s willingness and resolve to do so when he so seriously drops the ball on the horrific murder AND DISMEMBERMENT of a journalist at the hands of the Saudi Crown Prince. TBH I never had that much faith in Biden’s resolve so I can’t honestly say I’m surprised by this. Biden has repeatedly shown us who he is and what he’s willing to do. This Khashoggi situation is exactly what I expected from Biden.
*sigh*
Time for an old fart to explain things...
The US has been the Saudis' submissive since we pretty much established the House of Saud in the 1930s. (I'm going by memory, so some details may be off, but they're not all that important in the greater scheme of things.) Originally, of course, it was to have a stable state to ensure the free, lucrative flow of Saudi oil.
Meanwhile, the US state's primary role is to ensure that Big Business' -- in this case, obviously, Big Oil's -- vested interests were supported. Like, when our foreign service boasts about making the world safe for democracy they mean making the world safe for primarily American capitalists' interests. (Since the Bolshevik Revolution that also included ensuring that there was no alternative to capitalism even if it meant exaggerating the communist threat. I'd dare say that the post-WWII witch hunt was in large part a purge of New Deal functionaries whose acts proved that there was in fact an alternative to lawless capitalism.)
Back to the Saudis: The deal nowadays is we give them money for oil and much if not most of the money comes back in financing our debt. Up to a point, our national debt is less of a problem than it appears because of the safety cushion provided by the Saudis. A related problem is that Wall Street learned that debt is more lucrative for them than lending money that can actually grow the economy; Reagan essentially gave Wall Street the go ahead. Fun factoid: More and more the GDP is private sector debt which, when you think about it either doesn't belong in the GDP or, if it does, there should be an asterix and footnote to explain that while the GDP was once goods and services, it's now goods, services and debt. Or put it this way: 3% growth isn't what it used to be. Once good, now kind of meaningless.
So the Saudis' return of our oil money is essential to keeping that machine going. The policies needed to ween ourselves off that addiction -- via legal control of Wall Street via, say, taxation or a Green New Deal -- are essentially DOA -- at least at this time -- because they would negatively affect the vested interests whom the GOP and corporate Dems are paid to serve.
That's one third rail. Related is that what I said: the US must always submit to the Saudis. No POTUS of either party, no matter what they may say on the campaign trail, can or will take any action against the Saudis. Or put it this way: What Biden and Blinken have done is about as much as any US government can do. Indeed, the American state serves the Saudis far more and better than they serve the American people.
Sorry to say, despite mainstream journalism, that's how the nation actually works. And will work until enough of us take enough action to use such agency as we have to put in power a progressive state. We can do it, maybe, if we have the will.