Orange Duce

[HooDat]

this is a situation where Trump and the 1% are clearing in alignment. It is tinfoil hat land to think that Trump is covering this up any more than any other president would. The military industrial complex has no interest in poking Saudi Arabia. About the only folks that might like a fight is big oil, but even they prefer stability to $100 oil.

[dislaxxic]

TAATS is just a new religion around here for some people. TAATS while sometimes applicable is hardly the general principle some would have you believe.

SOME people? One Big One especially, plus many of our other self-identified "moderates" and various fence sitters that take comfort in, well, since they ALL do it, who gives a crap about any of it? Nice dodge, huh?

..

[dislaxxic]

Curious how some believe this is tied back to the US, SoS, or even Trump.

Not curious in the slightest that Trump has foreign financial entanglements (sweetheart deals, money laundering, and who-the-fork knows-WHAT-else) that would all bear directly on how our DOPUS thinks about foreign policy and American positions on secrecy (security), and things like, oh, arms sales, maybe??

"Curious"? Seriously??

..

[Trinity]

The 1% is bailing out of Davos in the Desert. Even Mnuchin.

[jhu72]

Mashal Saad al-Bostani, one of the 15 suspects who landed in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and a member of the Saudi Royal Air Force, died in a car accident in Riyadh yesterday...

More and more this looks like it is getting ready to blow up as a Trump scandal. We may have finally found something about Trump that outrages some republicans in congress. Think Trinity is right about the Nikki Haley resignation angle. We'll see.

Curious how some believe this is tied back to the US, SoS, or even Trump.

Its the Trump - Saudi money connection. There is more than a little whiff of pay to play. Trump's defending of the Saudis is inline with his own financial interest.

[jhu72]

Trump Place in Manhattan today took down the Trump sign. 70% of tenants insisted on it. Trump tried to sue claiming they had to keep the name -- he lost. The court disagreed. It was probably one of those Mexican judges.

[youthathletics]

Mashal Saad al-Bostani, one of the 15 suspects who landed in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and a member of the Saudi Royal Air Force, died in a car accident in Riyadh yesterday...

More and more this looks like it is getting ready to blow up as a Trump scandal. We may have finally found something about Trump that outrages some republicans in congress. Think Trinity is right about the Nikki Haley resignation angle. We'll see.

Curious how some believe this is tied back to the US, SoS, or even Trump.

Its the Trump - Saudi money connection. There is more than a little whiff of play to pay. Trump's defending of the Saudi's is inline with his own financial interest.

I'm sorry this just seems all too assumptive. If anything this allows Saudi to slit their own throats of their 2030 vision plan, thus isolating themselves. Sadly the new Prince "appears" to be attempting to go back to "moderate" islam. If the USA and global allies are in support of Sharia Law being slowly relaxed, turning SA into a more "civil" nation, then it seems to make sense not to jump the gun. But I seem to have either have a sensible, slow your role approach vs the left wanting a shotgun and AR-15 approach.

Moreover, what does this really say about those practicing the Islam Religion at the highest levels, their words appear to be of little value. But what do I know.

[foreverlax]

Listen to a few hours of cspan radio yesterday. The Prince is no prince.

Trump has definite conflicts of interest on this - he has made money from the Saudi family. Javanka seems to have some conflicts as well, i.e. Israel. No ambassador to SA? What the heck!!

Wait till Lindsay get's his last say....

[foreverlax]

Listen to a few hours of cspan radio yesterday. The Prince is no prince.

Trump has definite conflicts of interest on this - he has made money from the Saudi family. Javanka seems to have some conflicts as well, i.e. Israel. No ambassador to SA? What the heck!!

Wait till Lindsay gets his last say....

[jhu72]

Mashal Saad al-Bostani, one of the 15 suspects who landed in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and a member of the Saudi Royal Air Force, died in a car accident in Riyadh yesterday...

More and more this looks like it is getting ready to blow up as a Trump scandal. We may have finally found something about Trump that outrages some republicans in congress. Think Trinity is right about the Nikki Haley resignation angle. We'll see.

Curious how some believe this is tied back to the US, SoS, or even Trump.

Its the Trump - Saudi money connection. There is more than a little whiff of play to pay. Trump's defending of the Saudi's is inline with his own financial interest.

I'm sorry this just seems all too assumptive. If anything this allows Saudi to slit their own throats of their 2030 vision plan, thus isolating themselves. Sadly the new Prince "appears" to be attempting to go back to "moderate" islam. If the USA and global allies are in support of Sharia Law being slowly relaxed, turning SA into a more "civil" nation, then it seems to make sense not to jump the gun. But I seem to have either have a sensible, slow your role approach vs the left wanting a shotgun and AR-15 approach.

Moreover, what does this really say about those practicing the Islam Religion at the highest levels, their words appear to be of little value. But what do I know.

I am not debating the sense or non-sense of certain responses. All I am saying is it looks like this is going to be a bigger problem for Trump than he thought. He was clearly trying to sweep this under the rug. He is now backpedaling. Neither side of the Senate right now is buying the administration and Saudi explanations. Further the administration and Saudis look suspiciously like they are working together to "make up" a believable story as to what happened without MBS getting jammed up. May or may not be anything to this, but there appears to be enough that no one is going to just blindly buy the administration-Saudi story.

Update - The US IC has today made the statement that in their opinion there is "no way MBS did not have advanced knowledge of this assassination" (I paraphrase).

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

TAATS is just a new religion around here for some people. TAATS while sometimes applicable is hardly the general principle some would have you believe.

SOME people? One Big One especially, plus many of our other self-identified "moderates" and various fence sitters that take comfort in, well, since they ALL do it, who gives a turd about any of it? Nice dodge, huh?

..

so what's the implication here- we need more extremists???

[holmes435]

A broken clock is right twice a day by accident. But credit to where credit is due.

Trump Ending e-packet and other Chinese shipment benefits

This has been a thorn in the side of a lot of US manufacturers here (me included) as China has flooded the market & Amazon with cheap knockoffs and crud with cheaper shipping than we can get stateside on a number of things. This may have been a good idea when China was a 3rd world country (they still are technically 3rd world as they're not in NATO), but they don't need this subsidy anymore.

Congress has neutered and screwed over the self-subsidized Postal Service time and time again with stuff like this (and their pension funding and limited service offerings and more), much like their constant raiding of Social Security. Glad to see one good decision being made every year or two in the White House.

[jhu72]

A broken clock is right twice a day by accident. But credit to where credit is due.

Trump Ending e-packet and other Chinese shipment benefits

This has been a thorn in the side of a lot of US manufacturers here (me included) as China has flooded the market & Amazon with cheap knockoffs and crud with cheaper shipping than we can get stateside on a number of things. This may have been a good idea when China was a 3rd world country (they still are technically 3rd world as they're not in NATO), but they don't need this subsidy anymore.

Congress has neutered and screwed over the self-subsidized Postal Service time and time again with stuff like this (and their pension funding and limited service offerings and more), much like their constant raiding of Social Security. Glad to see one good decision being made every year or two in the White House.

Yup. They got something right. Kudos.

This will up my shipping charges on some electrical components, or have to place larger orders to maintain per unit pricing. Not a problem, lots of room in the existing margin to handle this.

This will likely most severely impact lower income shoppers purchasing through Amazon, its small competitors and Walmart and its competitors.

[jhu72]

Yet another Trump conflict of interest story. Congressional democrats have email proof of administration officials lying to congress about this, a crime. Trump also lied to the press when questioned, standard operating procedure.

The Trump administration, testing the depths of the swamp.

[jhu72]

Patribotics take on the Kashoggi Scandal.

[youthathletics]

Yet another Trump conflict of interest story. Congressional democrats have email proof of administration officials lying to congress about this, a crime. Trump also lied to the press when questioned, standard operating procedure.

The Trump administration, testing the depths of the swamp.

The FBI already has gargantuan complexes outside of DC, specifically in NoVa, there is zero reason for the FBI to vacate DC altogether. They need to be in DC, for obvious reason.

[foreverlax]

Marc Thiessen: What Trump needs to do now with Saudi Arabia

Fact No. 1: The United States can't simply ignore or sweep Khashoggi's death under the table. Even if Trump wants to do so, Congress won't let him -- nor should it.

Fact No. 2: MBS is not going anywhere. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy. He is the son of the king. He has spent the past few years systematically eliminating his rivals and consolidating power. The idea that a new leader is going to emerge to replace him is not realistic. And if, by chance, such a leader did emerge, it would likely be someone who wants to roll back the crown prince's efforts to rein in the religious establishment, clean up corruption and open up Saudi society. Be careful what you wish for.

Fact No. 3: We need Saudi Arabia, less as a source of oil -- the fracking revolution has dramatically expanded our energy independence -- than as a counterweight to Iran, which is the main strategic menace to U.S. interests in the region. Saudi Arabia is our most important ally in countering that threat. No other country in the Middle East can play that role. A permanent breach with Saudi Arabia is not an acceptable outcome.

How does Trump reconcile these three irreconcilable realities? The answer is: He can't. The result is going to be unpleasant and unsatisfying.

[youthathletics]

Forever - help me understand why this is our concern alone?

As I suggested earlier, MBS is potentially slitting his own throat for his 2030 SA vision, or is he? To me, and follow me thru on this...this could turn out to be a huge win for MBS and the demise or dampening of radical/strict Islam, why? Because, he (MBS) knows global sanctions, to include those from the USA, make SA suffer internally. What does that do...it awakens the people of SA to feel even more pain, then what does that do? During the sanction process and pain felt by all of the Saudi's, it allows MBS to meet and introduce more of his 2030 vision to relaxing strict Muslim law and getting them to "Moderate Islam" as the article I posted yesterday suggests, all while sanctions are slowly being removed, building Saudi's confidence back up.

MBS needs a way to get where he wants to go without being so blatantly obvious. He knows, if he is truly being sincere about relaxing strict Islam law, he can not just broadcast to the Muslim World in a speech that starting next year, we will abolish our rigid Islam traditions, etc. He knows this is almost like moving the world.

Just being thought-provoking with a 10 plus year vision

[HooDat]

It sure smells like some serious crap is about to go down in the ME. In my opinion, we need to get out and stay away while it goes down, perhaps be prepared to offer humanitarian assistance as appropriate. In addition, we need to prepare for the repercussions of is coming - and that is by being ready to be more self-sufficient than we have been in our livfetimes.

In 100 years folks are going to look back and say that whether by design or dumb luck, the US smoothly endured the global impacts of the ME turmoil that is coming as a result of the following:

- the fracking revolution and how it completely changed US energy self-sufficiency - particularly with regard to transportation fuels
- the tightening of trade relations with China in particular that softened the blow of shipping costs going through the roof when ME oil went off the market crippling global trade
- the (potentially coming soon) development of safer nuclear power and efficient power storage that dramatically reduced our reliance on natural gas (that was also impacted by global energy scarcity
- enhanced control of our borders


thoughts....?

[Typical Lax Dad]

It sure smells like some serious turd is about to go down in the ME. In my opinion, we need to get out and stay away while it goes down, perhaps be prepared to offer humanitarian assistance as appropriate. In addition, we need to prepare for the repercussions of is coming - and that is by being ready to be more self-sufficient than we have been in our livfetimes.

In 100 years folks are going to look back and say that whether by design or dumb luck, the US smoothly endured the global impacts of the ME turmoil that is coming as a result of the following:

- the fracking revolution and how it completely changed US energy self-sufficiency - particularly with regard to transportation fuels
- the tightening of trade relations with China in particular that softened the blow of shipping costs going through the roof when ME oil went off the market crippling global trade
- the (potentially coming soon) development of safer nuclear power and efficient power storage that dramatically reduced our reliance on natural gas (that was also impacted by global energy scarcity
- enhanced control of our borders

thoughts....?

Analysts say the seeming indifference to the fate that had befallen Khashoggi and the timid support that some governments such as Yemen's government-in-exile and Lebanon's Saad Hariri have expressed for Saudi Arabia is a testament to the influence Riyadh holds in the region.
It is also a reflection of the dire state of press freedom and human rights more generally in the region, they say.