Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[hack]

Let's see, mutually beneficial to start and then the deal goes horribly wrong?

So the Saudis agree to let the Turks talk to Kashogi and to keep things on the up & up, they agree to talk to him in the Saudi Consulate. Kashogi agrees to come. Who knows what the reason for the Turks wanting to talk to him are but he's in Turkey, more or less a Saudi out-cast. Maybe they don't want him there. But during the talk, Kashogi has a heart attack and dies. Now what? We don't want this shit on us so, they conveniently and to their benefit lay it on the Saudis.

The entire set of disclosures so far looks a bit crude, grotesquely faked and contrived to me. The evidence we are being tantalized with pointing to Saudi wrong-doing is too good to be true. There's a good chance this was either a huge fuck-up by the Saudis (he unexpectedly died during interrogation) who are striving to cover their asses or it was a planned subterfuge by Erdogan and his cronies, the purpose of which was to create an international crisis destabilizing to the House of Saud.

We weren't there and can't know, but that is really hard to imagine. Erdogan is incredibly prickly and never gets along with anyone for too long. MBS is even more sensitive. Turkey was the whistle-blower to start. Occam's razor is Saudi did it and Turkey's making hay out of it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Cook political report moves the OH-12 race from "Lean R" to "Toss-Up" (this is the Balderson v. O'Connor race from two months ago). Internally polling apparently shows it in a virtual tie.

Interesting point in the article is that Denison University students were still at home for the summer during the August special election. It's not a huge school but this was a contest decided by under 2,000 votes last time. Meanwhile Republicans hope to improve on turnout.

https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/ohio-house/oh-12-once-again-toss-balderson-seeks-full-term

[Dr. Strangelove]

WWJD?

According to Pat Robertson, he'd sell the Saudis $100B in guns and not be bothered by an occasional murder

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/17/17990268/pat-robertson-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-trump-crisis

[Kapture1]

don't most college kids not change their address while at school?

i know i didn't. had to vote absentee

[AlabamAlum]

WWJD?

According to Pat Robertson, he'd sell the Saudis $100B in guns and not be bothered by an occasional murder

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/17/17990...a-trump-crisis

It's absolutely what Jesus would do.

[iam416]

[AlabamAlum]

Coming from an Ohio State guy, that is pretty funny. Heh. Thanks for the laugh.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I always voted absentee because my vote mattered more in Ohio than in NY. The article notes than the number of people around Denison who voted in the OH-12 special election was only a small fraction of what it was in 2016, suggesting the college kids vote there in some numbers.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah no matter what Saudi Arabia does we always end of justifying it with "well the Iranians are worse". To some extent, there's justification in saying that if we didn't draw the line at how MBS has run the war in Yemen, or his extortion/execution of most of the Saudi royal family, or his near-war with Qatar, or his probable sponsoring of ISIS, why draw the line at this one guy?

Of course, I've been saying the Saudis are trash and our alliance with them is a disgrace for a while now...but hey...

[iam416]

[hack]

I don't think there's any reason at all to say that. Saudi is the one that aggressively exports its ideology. Aggressive radicalization across the Muslim world and in our countries too. There is probably a mosque near everyone on this forum for which the Saudis agreed to renovate or build on the condition that they pick the imam. Say what you will about Iran and how they attempt to use Lebanon, Syria or the Houthis as proxies -- at least they're not aggressively exporting the most hateful version of their code. I don't think there's any security concern greater than Saudi.

The Khashoggi thing isn't about one journalist. Nor is it this incident on its own the litmus test for whether we still live in a rules-based world created for and by Western civilization. But it's one of a series of incidents that, if gone unresponded to, will erode much of the last bit of soft power the US still has.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And now there's this. Midway in this article Bob Corker says that the administration abruptly cancelled his intelligence briefing and told him no one in Congress will be given any additional information by the administration until further notice. "I can only surmise that the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia" says Corker.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.af9962bb0115

[hack]

Saudi is the key to the region only because the ratio of population to oil is really bad. Way too many people have a claim on those riches and are willing to blow up foreigners in Western capital. Saudi knows it has no post-oil future, which is why the were desperate enough to hand it over to MbS in the first place. Beyond that, Egypt is the key to the region because there's another 100m underemployed/easily radicalized people.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I don't think there's any reason at all to say that. Saudi is the one that aggressively exports its ideology. Aggressive radicalization across the Muslim world and in our countries too. There is probably a mosque near everyone on this forum for which the Saudis agreed to renovate or build on the condition that they pick the imam. Say what you will about Iran and how they attempt to use Lebanon, Syria or the Houthis as proxies -- at least they're not aggressively exporting the most hateful version of their code. I don't think there's any security concern greater than Saudi.

The Khashoggi thing isn't about one journalist. Nor is it this incident on its own the litmus test for whether we still live in a rules-based world created for and by Western civilization. But it's one of a series of incidents that, if gone unresponded to, will erode much of the last bit of soft power the US still has.

War is too profitable to try and stop it, Hack. Jesus would understand. Why can't you?

[hack]

And now there's this. Midway in this article Bob Corker says that the administration abruptly cancelled his intelligence briefing and told him no one in Congress will be given any additional information by the administration until further notice. "I can only surmise that the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia" says Corker.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.af9962bb0115

That'll be leaked by morning, unless it's kept within an extraordinarily tight circle.