U.S. got $100 million from Saudi Arabia on the same day Pompeo was in Riyadh

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/17/u-s-got-100-million-from-sau.html

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So I am betting the Consul gets set up as the fall guy.

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krysten-ritter-eyeroll-seriouly

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You called it, very succinctly:

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Hush money for a porn star: $100,000
Bribe to “forget about it” for a butchered journalist: $100,000,000

These are good things to know.

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I did.
I used to like making political predictions.
Now, not so much.

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There is a price for everything.
Unfortunately.

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The journalist is out of Toadstool’s “hair” too.

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Well, I guess the US has to get something out of it. That “$110 billion weapons deal” that Trump keeps talking about (and using to justify the US’s response) doesn’t exist. It was only ever a letter of intent, and they’ve apparently not followed through on it (and didn’t seem likely to).

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This whole story is so disgusting. One has to wonder what a democratic president would do in this situation… Maybe a different rhetorical posture, but I’d doubt much different policy-wise… Except. The Saudis probably feel super emboldened by Trump tearing up the Iran deal and sending his know-nothing son to handle mid-east policy… Ugh, I really do hate that man.

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You know what I hate?

Not just that they accept bribes. That’s bad, that’s really bad.

But that when they do accept bribes, they are so $*!(# cheap.

$100MM is nothing to this guy, not personally, not to the Saudi government.

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It’s .0001 percent of his wealth, peanuts doesn’t even cover it.

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It’s also nothing to the US - although it would dwarf even my personal fortune. The US economy is measured in trillions. Millions is a rounding error.

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Now that we’ve established that we have a price for rolling over what do we call ourselves?

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And it was only for something like $4bn.

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It’s almost certain the Saudis intended this money as a bribe, but I don’t think this $100 million payment will have any bearing on our government’s behavior. Trump’s loyalty to the Saudis is sealed by the money he personally makes on their use of his hotels and resorts, by their purchases of entire floors in his buildings. $100 million paid to the USA means nothing to him, nor to any of his proxies, like Pompeo. It might as well not even exist.

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Apparently the big deal was done under Obama - so it’s yet another case of Trump taking credit for something that happened before he was in office.

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Pompeo is also the Koch Brothers’ lapdog, don’t ya know. I wonder if they’re benefiting from this somehow?

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