Have you seen the Saudi prince who 'sexually abused multiple women' in a $37m LA compound? Because he's missing

Sure, but this does not invalidate that Western Hemisphere can be used with different meanings and not only the geographical one you implied.

Right now, the house of Saud is untouchable. Not a lot we can do other than keep pressuring our leaders not to play along with their evil plans. Unfortch, we have a great evil in our own front yard to deal with and we are watching it play out this election season.

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Well:
Low oil prices - economic good news, reduce inflation and manufacturing/logistics costs.
OTOH - US fracking industry is being driven out of business.
Saudis kind of keep the mad Wahabis under some sort of control
OTOH - the mad Wahabis are gaining traction all the time - what do you think IS is?

If the Saudis go, Saudi Arabia will fracture into a load of fundamentalist Islamic tribes and there will be more regional destabilisation as some of them embark on conquest - it will be a rerun of the late 600s/early 700s.
OTOH - if the US takes a sensible attitude to Iran and Russia, both of whom are extremely worried about Sunni fundamentalism, there is a chance of getting a coalition together that will do a Charlemagne. A new Persian empire might be a lot better, overall, than the present mess. And they might be prepared to pay the price of putting up with Israel to get it.

In reality women seem to be better off in Iran than Saudi, and Iran isn’t built on slave labour like the Gulf. So it could actually be an improvement. But lots of ground forces will be needed, and the West, however you define it, won’t want to do that.

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You did read the second paragraph of my original post?

I’m a little bit lost here, which original post do you refer to?

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It was the original original one, right after the original one. Between original original original and original. That one.

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I really can’t be bothered helping out people who can’t keep track of their own posting history. :expressionless:

As far as I can see your only post with more than one paragraph is the one that started this whole argument. So I’m not sure why I should reread a sentence I already used to quibble about semantics? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But I’m sure you’re right and I’m wrong, it’s kind of stupid to flood a thread about this Saudi gentleman with negligibilities.

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Saudis kind of keep the mad Wahabis under some sort of control
OTOH - the mad Wahabis are gaining traction all the time - what do you think IS is?

If the Saudis go, Saudi Arabia will fracture into a load of fundamentalist Islamic tribes and there will be more regional destabilisation as some of them embark on conquest - it will be a rerun of the late 600s/early 700s.

I agree that the vacuum created by the fall of the House of Saud will result in religiously-driven civil war. However, it is also important to remember that the Saudi government is responsible for the spread (and continued funding) of radical Islam throughout the Middle East; they export radicalism abroad in order to prevent it from flourishing domestically . When the House of Saud falls many radical Islamic groups will effectively lose their sugar daddy.

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I agree, but this is not of itself a good thing. We are seeing with the IRA that it is resurgent because it has no money. IS has to expand rapidly in order to loot fast enough to retain the loyalty of its fighters. The thought of a lot of similar groups all doing the same thing is rather worrying. Without a paymaster of last resort, they have no incentive at all to behave in a civilised way.

And who do you think takes over if that happens, freethinking Sufi hippies? Remember we thought getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a good idea too.

Without a paymaster of last resort, they have no incentive at all to behave in a civilised way.

They appear unwilling to “behave in a civilized way” even with the financial support of the Saudi government.

Energized by my outrage over the seeming impunity of spoiled brats - I checked out the blog used by some of the martial arts pros that spoiled brats hire and how they justify helping this type of guy possibly avoid justice. One said that he was just interested in the 30 pieces of silver. One of them said to look up the Donmeh (or Doenmeh) and that will give some insight. Holy shit! All the crazy stuff in the middle east now makes more sense. See wikipedia Donmeh or this: http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/10/25/the-doenmeh-the-middle-easts-most-whispered-secret-part-i.html and this http://www.ourbeacon.com/cgi-bin/bbs60x/webbbs_config.pl/md/read/id/314123119215247

Appears to be an anti-semetic rabbit hole.

Appearances can be deceiving. I get it that some people think there is a great Catholic, Masonic, Jewish, etc. conspiracy. Jews did what they had to do. Tell me there is no conspiracy to deny the Armenian Genocide. It’s not like there is no such thing as subterfuge and conspiracy.

Although I wouldn’t be surprised if he got punished for this when (and if) he gets home to Saudi Arabia…

I think it’s only like 2000 people who are part of the ruling class in Saudi Arabia, if I’m remembering correctly. There are some who have become exiled because they opposed the regime for whatever reason.

Not really, they were around before the British had a firm grip on the region - it’s more like they used the British intervention to secure the most important region of the Middle East.

I said that our airport security infrastructure ought to have been set up to stop him (and I specifically said “airport security infrastructure,” not “this particular airport’s security staff”), and you disagreed. I’m not sure how to interpret that other than “defending”.

I thought it was pretty clear from context that by “corrupt”, I meant “prone to raping people”.

But now I’m confused. Earlier, you said that it wasn’t the House of Saud’s fault if a few of their members were assholes. Now you’re saying they’re all assholes and there’s no point in even trying to distinguish. Which is it?