A long and detailed analysis of what is going on in Saudi Arabia. It looks like the Prince is either a genius or a fool.
The round-up of Saudi Princes which took place on 5th November 2017 is simply the latest in a succession of purges initiated by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman, as he tries to consolidate his position by getting his hands on all of Saudi Arabia’s levers of power.
As is often the case in purges of this kind, a large number of people have been rounded up on ‘corruption charges’ (the standard pretext used to conceal power struggles of this sort) in order to conceal the identity of the true target of the purge.…
We’re seeing a lot of “liberalism” in Iran lately, particularly regarding woman’s rights.
I don’t know if they are really liberalizing, or doing this for good optics with the west. If it’s “real” then it’s a very good thing. If it’s merely optics, it’s a dangerous move that will backfire.
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Saudi Arabia has many of the same problems that the US has. They have the money to try and influence its enemies with military force, yet they haven’t been successful.
Most westerners don’t realize that Saudi Arabia has enemies along its borders and that they’ve been subject to invasions in recent years. They’ve built a “wall” on the border with Iraq. They’ve funded and coerced the US to topple Syria’s leader. They invaded Yemen and are still fighting there. Despite having a huge technological and military equipment advantage they aren’t winning.
They are actually hiring soldiers from foreign countries to serve in their military in Yemen.
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Being from the South, I don’t normally consider college football outside of the SEC to be “real” college football, but the Penn State coach this past weekend was impressive.
Penn State was upset this past weekend by Michigan State. Ok, upsets happen. In the post game interview, Coach James Franklin abruptly left his interview and started running towards the tunnel where his players were going back to the locker room. Of course the sports media immediately started to make fun of Franklin for being a “sore loser”.
Well, imagine everyone’s surprise to discover that he was running after his players who were poor sports and failing to shake hands with the opposing team. He was making them return to the field to be good sportsmen.
Values, folks. What sports competition at the amateur level used to be about.
Of course, it needs to be pointed out that Coach Franklin last coached in the SEC at Vanderbilt! …
This is from a good friend who decided years ago that you’d never get the truth out of the media. So he became very fluent in lots of languages. He reads the media in its original language. If you only have time, watch the first one. It’s almost 30 minutes, so put some time aside.
Here’s what he sent:
I am writing to you to draw your attention to two most interesting interviews of two of the most interesting women in Russia: Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief the television news network RT and the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya.
What is particularly interesting is that these interviews are intended for a Russian audience and both Zakharova and Simonyan speak with a candid directness which they would probably not exercise in an English-language interview for a foreign audience, primarily out of a sense of courtesy: they would say the very same things, yes, but in a much more diplomatic manner. This time, however, you can tell that both ladies speak their hearts and minds directly and with no attempts as hints or euphemisms. I think that this is exceptionally important as this shows the degree of disgust, contempt, amusement and bewilderment Russian officials today feel when the look at the fetid zoo US politics have become.
I strongly recommend you watch both interviews in full.
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The US Government’s annual income pays for 89% of what it spends. That creates a $440 billion deficit.
The government projects taking in income of $3.654 TRILLION in FY2018! Where does the money come from?.....
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A large part (almost one third) of our federal government debt is owed to ourselves! The Social Security Trust Fund is one of them. Social Security for decades was a system that raised enough money to pay its bills. Recognizing that there were going to be less people paying into it than it needed to spend, the government raised the taxes on Social Security and put the “extra” amount collected into savings. Of course our politicians are thieves, so they “stole” the money to spend right away and issued the Social Security folks treasury bonds. So a lot of our debt is money that we already were taxed on....
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The world is in debt to the tune of over $60 TRILLION! Of course that number goes up by the second. The internet is full of debt clocks, and you can watch the numbers go up second by second.
We get to claim world leadership in debt with almost $21 TRILLION! I’m sure it’s surprise to learn that Japan is second with almost $12 TRILLION. Let that sink in for a moment…. The US and Japan account for over half of the worlds debt. There are actually five countries in the world with zero debt. …
Imagine you’ve been arrested and are going to court. As part of your defense, you share with your attorney all sorts of intimate details on your involvement of the crime. Your attorney shares defense strategies.
Imagine if the prosecution had “bugged” the room you talked to your lawyer in. Of course the courts would punish the prosecution for violating the principle of attorney-client privilege.
Well the bugging happened and instead of the prosecution being punished over this violation, the lead defense attorney was sentenced to 21 days in jail and fined $1000.
The Guantonamo “trials” have been troubling for some time but this one is a major black eye for America. We’re supposed to stand for the rule of law. We claim to be the symbol of greatness in the world. When we destroy our principles in order to punish those who attempt to hurt us, we win nothing. In a flashback to the Vietnam war, where we had to destroy a village to save it, we’re destroying what America stands for in order to save America.
What is so troubling for me is that these are Commissioned Officers doing this. The Officer Corps of the US Military is supposed to have more honor than mere politicians.
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The Defense Department admits to the war on terror costing the taxpayers $250 MILLION a day for the past 16 years. The Defense Department being what it is, probably underestimates this by at least half.
Of course, this only includes the war on Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also does not include the costs of death benefits or veteran disabilities.
It also does not include the costs of the intelligence world.
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