Your Once and Final Supreme Double Impeachee

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by kladner

This 'alert' creeped me out Big Time, and still does. It is a display of power, and an implied threat.

These expansions of the national Emergency Alert System have been in progress for years - with your local n00z media busily foisting their apps and push alerts on their viewers, you had to figure the EAS would be using similar.

However, I can totally picture DJT very quickly pushing the envelope on what constitutes suitable material for such Presidential Push Alerts. But our officialdom reassures us otherwise (snip from a Reuters piece I read on the test): 'On a conference call, government officials told reporters that Trump would not personally trigger the alert — from his phone or any other device — and emphasized that no president could “wake up one morning and attempt to send a personal message.”'

[S485122]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

...
'On a conference call, government officials told reporters that Trump would not personally trigger the alert — from his phone or any other device — and emphasized that no president could “wake up one morning and attempt to send a personal message.”'

It has come very far if spokespersons of the government feel the need to tell this and to be emphatic about it !

Jacob

[Dr Sardonicus]

The alert said "No action required."

Unless you wanted your phone back, apparently, in which case you had to press "Confirm." That's an action, nicht wahr?

Perhaps the following phrase will prove useful in times to come:

‎я не понимаю

[Dr Sardonicus]

The name of a journalist who had been critical of the current Saudi regime, and who's been in the news lately (though not in print, or in front of mikes or cameras) rang a bell about something from over 30 years ago, so I figured it must be a different guy. I looked up Jamal Khashoggi. The guy I was thinking of turns out to have been his Uncle Adnan. It also turns out one of Jamal's cousins had been in the news some years back, too:

Khashoggi comes from a very rich, powerful and well-known family in Saudi Arabia. He was born in Medina in 1958. His grandfather, Muhammad Khashoggi, married a Saudi woman and served as personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Jamal Khashoggi is the nephew of late, high-profile Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran-Contra scandal, estimated to have had a net worth of $4 bn in the 1980s. Jamal Khashoggi’s cousin, Dodi Fayed, was dating Britain’s Princess Diana when the two were killed in a car crash in Paris.

Anyhow, it seems Jamal went into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, and is not known to have left. The Saudis said he left, but AFAIK they didn't say it was under his own power, or in one piece.

Il Duce's reaction to the possibility that Jamal Khashoggi was in fact murdered includes,

I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that’s been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment.

Well, maybe. They've only committed to about 15 billion. But it's nice to be reminded of where our Great Leader's priorities lie.

[wombatman]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Anyhow, it seems Jamal went into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, and is not known to have left. The Saudis said he left, but AFAIK they didn't say it was under his own power, or in one piece.

The Turks are claiming they have video of Jamal's death inside the consulate. This is, of course, from anonymous US officials, so massive grain of salt. But the video allegedly shows Jamal's being detained, beaten, tortured, and murdered by a group of 15 Saudis that entered Turkey, went to the embassy for a few hours, and then left again the same day. So this should be interesting.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

.......

Well, maybe. They've only committed to about 15 billion. But it's nice to be reminded our Great Leader lies.

FTFY

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

FTFY

No, don't need any reminding of that. He lies

1) whenever his lips are moving

2) whenever Sarah Huckabee Sanders' lips are moving

etc etc etc

[ewmayer]

Bernie Sanders: US should pull out of war in Yemen if Saudis killed journalist | The Hill

Jeebus, Bernie, do you really need that "if..." qualifier?

Media Sponsors Pulling Out of MBS-Hosted Investment Summit Over Khashoggi | ZeroHedge

What the mass slaughter of civilians and even bombing a school bus full of children in Yemen couldn’t do, the murder of one of their own did: a growing list of major media companies have declared they are pulling out of a high profile investment summit in Riyadh set to start on October 23rd over the alleged Saudi state murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi “insider” critic Jamal Khashoggi.

This next piece adds some caveats to the "journalist" aspect:

Killing Saudi Journalist Khashoggi Could Spell End For For Mohammad Bin Salman | Strategic Culture

Jamal Khashoggi is a controversial figure, a representative of the shadowy world of collaboration that sometimes exists between journalism and the intelligence agencies, in this case involving the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the United States. It has been virtually confirmed by official circles within the Al Saud family that Khashoggi was an agent in the employ of Riyadh and the CIA during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

From 1991 to 1999, he continued to serve in several countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Sudan, Kuwait and other parts of the Middle East, often maintaining an ambiguous role in the service of his friend Turki Faisal Al-Saud, the future Saudi ambassador to Washington and London and later supreme head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years.
….
One of the main criticisms of Khashoggi coming from factions loyal to Abdullah was that he had recruited and paid several journalists on behalf of the CIA during his time as an editor. Such an accusation would conform with the widespread practice of the CIA seeking to influence the media, and therefore public opinion, and to put pressure on leaders failing to do what Washington wants.

And on a lighter note:

Trump Administration Urges Saudis To Stick To Killing Random Yemeni Civilians | The Onion

[Dr Sardonicus]

The latest about the Khashoggi case is, the Saudis may be willing to admit he was killed. Il Duce says he talked to the King, who disclaimed any knowledge of Khashoggi being killed, but suggested that "rogue killers" may be to blame.

"Rogue killers?" Sure! The Crown Prince decided Khashoggi had gone rogue. Thus, the hit squad were "rogue killers!"

Of course, the idea that he was killed in the Saudi Consulate without authorization from higher-ups is farcical. But this ludicrous scenario may be offered as a "face-saving solution" to avoid serious ruptures in relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and between Saudi Arabia and the USA.

[ewmayer]

More context on l'affaire Khashoggi, with an interesting point regarding the US economy and the late, great global financial crisis:

Trump and Jamal Khashoggi— Saudi Arabia Has Been Bribing the US with Arms Sales for Years | naked capitalism

By now, few doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead. It is most likely that the Saudi journalist—who once advised kings and billionaires—was killed by an interrogation team sent from Saudi Arabia to meet him in Turkey. If this was the case, then it is impossible for the hit on Khashoggi to have taken place without a green light from the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (affectionately known as MBS). The Saudi royal palace would have signed Khashoggi’s death warrant because he had turned on the kingdom he otherwise loyally served. Nothing in Jamal Khashoggi’s career suggested that he would become a dissident. But, MBS had consolidated power against the fragile balance within the royal family and he had arrested and humiliated Khashoggi’s friends, including Al Waleed bin Talal of Twitter and Goldman Sachs. Khashoggi’s dissent was the complaint of one fraction of the ruling elite against another. If he were an unknown Saudi blogger sitting in Virginia, fulminating for a miniscule readership, he would have been left alone. That he represented powerful interests inside the kingdom made it impossible for him to survive.
...
Pressure came upon Trump to at least block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. But, Trump is a pragmatic man. He knows that this would do two things he cannot afford—it would show that the U.S. does not stand by its allies, who might then seek allies elsewhere, and it would jeopardize the massive arms deals that the U.S. arms manufacturers have signed with the Saudis. Buying arms from the United States has come into use in Saudi Arabia’s insane war against Yemen, but more than that it has always been an insurance policy, a way to recycle Saudi petrodollars into the U.S. exchequer through arms deals. Not many U.S. politicians—who have arms manufacturers in each district—would be willing to throw Saudi Arabia overboard as long as it buys weapons systems that it mostly never used. Given this situation, Trump quite rightly ignored calls to stop the arms sales—“I actually think we’d be punishing ourselves if we did that.”

Why say that Trump was right to do what he did? It was not only because Trump wanted to maintain the U.S.-Saudi relationship. It was largely because Trump’s industrial strategy relies upon weapons sales around the world. And this is not merely Trump’s strategy. This has been the industrial strategy of the U.S. ever since manufacturing began to escape U.S. shores from the 1970s and ever since the USSR collapsed and Russian weapons manufacturing deteriorated (a situation remedied only recently). It is worth pointing out that the U.S. has been the world’s largest arms exporter for decades. It is also worth pointing out that U.S. arms exports have increased astronomically since 2008; it was arms manufacturing that was the fulcrum of the U.S. recovery from the credit crisis. Twenty percent of U.S. arms sales go to Saudi Arabia, whose appetite for U.S. weapons has increased by 448 percent from 2008-12 to 2013-17. This monstrous relationship that deposits Saudi petrodollars into the U.S. in exchange for weapons benefits the U.S. financial markets and the arms manufacturers—two key fractions of U.S. capital.

[kladner]

.....was killed by an interrogation team sent from Saudi Arabia to meet him in Turkey.

"Interrogation" seems to have been a cover story. This was a torture and hit squad.