Friends and Foes

President Trump on the Khashoggi Affair ...

 

Well, maybe the Saudis will pull an Obama-style investigation, like they did into the IRS targeting thing. The Saudi equivalent of Lois Lerner will resign, and that'll be it.

J

45 minutes ago, Jon Letendre said:

We still don’t know what happened with the mass shooting in Vegas,

"We" is a reach. If an epistemology is corrupt, feeble, based on suspicion-as-guilt -- or otherwise thoroughly non-objective, if one is gullible and easily-confused by conspiracy ideation, sure. "You" will know fuck all about what happened in the Las Vegas mass murder.  

Perhaps one day you can share more whoopee about Directed Energy Beams and the California Wild Fires. You "we" people seemed to know a lot about that ...

On 12/26/2017 at 10:33 AM, Jon Letendre said:

When President Trump threatened “fire and fury like the world had never seen,” he meant he would use undisclosed technologies, such as those air-or-space-borne directed energy weapons tested on wildfire homes in CA, which homes are being reduced to white ash, even all the metals, while green trees remain, trees that were nearly in contact with the homes. In CA these weapons are turning engine blocks and aluminum wheels to liquid so hot it runs along asphalt for several yards. Some white ash pits where there homes contain no sinks, water heaters, tubs, ovens, or hardware. Just white ash. And the wheels of the car in the driveway turned liquid and ran into the street. While the trees and all the landscaping is green everywhere. Forest fire. Go see the pics, you tell me.

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by william.scherk

Apologies to readers and posters to the blog for leaving this entry locked for hours. I usually lock an entry while I am editing a comment of my own. This time I missed unlocking. I add in here an item from the Trump thread from Jon Letendre that he may have wanted to post above:

5 hours ago, Jon Letendre said:

Billyboy shit-for-brains has closed comments in his safe space, Arab Tyrants blog, so I’ll post this here,.

Wow, Jon actually believes fires can be started, can you imagine the stupidity? And he actually believes in “lasers” and directed “electromagnetic radiation..” Go back to your Buck Rogers programmming, Jon. Tee, hee, hee!

Since this "fires" reference suggests to me that Jon may wish to react to the "Rabbit Hole" topic, I will cross-post to that thread.

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by william.scherk

The left and its press are very excited about the Khashoggi investigations and arranging political consequences, and more so each day. Thrills up legs, frothing loins. Throbbings. They're savoring the many potential ways to use the ordeal to punsish Trump and the uneducated herd that elected him. They're becoming giddy. Whichever option Trump chooses is oh my god can you believe what an amateurish evil dunce he is. They're more interested in the prospect of a political weapon than in the murder and dismemberment of a fellow human being.

J

"They" sound awful, they do.  Alex Jones has other ideas ...

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by william.scherk

The left is using the same tactic in regard to the Khashoggi issue that they use for climate doom. Unfalsifiability. Just like all possible outcomes prove catastrophic manmade climate change, all potential choices of courses of action in response to the Khashoggi killing are wrong. Our Billy is even participating. It's the reason he won't answer questions about the proper course of action. He and the rest of the left wish to reserve The ability to condemn, no matter what.

34 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

The left is using the same tactic in regard to the Khashoggi issue that they use for climate doom. Unfalsifiability. Just like all possible outcomes prove catastrophic manmade climate change, all potential choices of courses of action in response to the Khashoggi killing are wrong. Our Billy is even participating. It's the reason he won't answer questions about the proper course of action. He and the rest of the left wish to reserve The ability to condemn, no matter what.

That is correct.

It’s quite futile, too, it’s a loser topic. No one cares or even knew who this particular M Brotherhood terrorist “journalist” was until last week.

”Get irate, everyone!! The new crown prince, who Cheeto said is better than the last one has killed a terrorist we are calling a journalist. Isn’t that horrible of Cheeto? Don’t you hate him, now? Well, don’t you? Hello? Anyone listening? Hello”

Scott Adams has his say as well.  From today, excerpted from here.

 

21 minutes ago, Jon Letendre said:

[Muslim] Brotherhood terrorist “journalist” was until last week.

I don't see an argument that Khashoggi was a 'terrorist.'  Declarative sentences are swell as far as marking-territory or blurted opinion goes, but such declamations are not persuasive.  This seems to be another manic claim without warrant.  Ho hum.

Why would anyone care about this issue today?  "The Left" hurr hurr grawk.

Quote

Yes, Jamal Khashoggi had many friends among the Muslim Brotherhood and, as his colleague David Ignatius reported days after his disappearance, had joined the movement himself as a young man before apparently shifting away from it later in his career. No one who knew Jamal at all is surprised by these facts, no matter with what lurid framing they are now “revealed.” Whatever sympathies and associations he may have had, they do not change the apparent fact that Jamal Khashoggi was kidnapped, murdered, and dismembered to silence his freedom of expression. Those on the right who have spent decades fighting for free speech on campus will leap to tell you, correctly, that freedom of speech demands respect regardless of the political valance of the views espoused—and that protecting the expression of unpopular views that challenge current political correctness is the acid test for the security of this right overall. So even if you believe that Jamal Khashoggi was a full-bore Brotherhood member with an agenda of Islamization for the Arab world, you should still condem his apparent assassination for the crime of speaking his mind.

2This “whisper campaign,” as the Washington Post deemed it, has noted Khashoggi’s embedded reporting about the Arab mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, including Osama bin Laden, as evidence that Khashoggi should be understood as hostile to the West. This is an anachronistic view. Khashoggi was reporting on these fighters for an official Saudi newspaper, apparently with some degree of admiration at their faith, commitment, and moxie, at a time when their efforts were supported by the Saudi government. Other Western journalists and commentators—not to mention politicians—were likewise enamored with the mujahideen, during a period when the Reagan administration and Congress worked hand-in-glove with Saudi Arabia to support these insurgents against Soviet occupation. As Ignatius makes clear in the piece cited earlier, Khashoggi “grew wary” of bin Laden and his violent intent toward the United States and the kingdom, and believed Saudis and Arabs needed to be forthright in acknowledging bin Laden’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

 

“...for speaking his mind...”

”...to silence his freedom of expression...”

No one knows what he really was.

No one knows what really happened to him.

No one knows why.

All the rest is just a lot of coordinated leftist hot air.

All this concern for an Arab journalist from the same people who cannot bring themselves to give a flying fuck about four tortured and dead Americans in Benghazi is quite obviously fake. No one is buying it. Push it harder, please, so even more voters see the crocodile tears and vote to support President Trump in 17 days.

Scott Adams always has such a calm, reasonable tone. I almost get hypnotized.  Here are some  more of his thoughts and calculations on the 'crisis' aka HooplaMachine aka Khashoggi Affair.  "Nobody cares," of course, but it is still an opportunity to calculate.  To my mind there is both a Wild West and a Byzantine cast to the affair. Remember the term "Kremlinology"? Saudi is a  'closed' society at the top, westerners do not penetrate the deliberative bodies of the Saudi state with anyone else but a Khashoggi type, if such type there is. Power is unchecked by any like our Western-style institutions. It's a yesterday place in so many ways, locked into a logic of absolutism, totalism, and kingship. The Kingdom thinks only of its survival as autocracy. The piddling social reforms so far are to my eyes far from where Saudi people want their nation to go, where it could go.

Don't let Scott Adam's calm deliberative approach throw you off the horse.  It's not like the Crown Prince is a rampage-killer (in Yemen).

 

2 hours ago, william.scherk said:

Scott Adams always has such a calm, reasonable tone....Don't let Scott Adam's calm deliberative approach throw you off the horse.  It's not like the Crown Prince is a rampage-killer (in Yemen).

 

M-kay. So, do you share his approach and view? If Trump were to adopt this proposed solution, what then? Would it still be reasonable and praiseworthy, or would you suddenly imagine a childish, tantrum tone and bumbling evil if Trump and "Those® on the right"™ were to advocate it? What would the American left say, especially its elected leaders and press?

"Trump made a great choice, an admirable choice," or "Trump just gave a winky nod slap on the wrist to his rich one percent murder buddies so that they can all get richer and have more power, he's a dunce and a tool, tee hee hee"?

J

Fake news is everywhere. So are the Communists. While correlation is not causation, it does stink like dead meat.

--Brant

It was Communists all along.

--Brant

If anyone is interested in layman language facts about Khashoggi, albeit wedded to a message that the left and its fake news press is trying to use this affair in all ways they can to get Trump, here are a couple of recent transcripts by Rush Limbaugh.

Amidst all the yelling in the press, I have not seen many of the simply biographical things he says.

I wish I had time to condense these transcripts for you, but I don't right now. They are a bit long, but the illumination they give is well worth the time spent reading them if you are truly interested in this story.

You will come away from reading them with a vastly different perspective on who Khashoggi was than you did before you read them. I don't mean an emotional good guy-bad guy perspective. I mean simply identifying who the dude was and what he did in life. This also applies to the Crown Prince and even the context.

The way the press presents this entire story is not accurate at the foundation, mixing some facts with lots of ham-handed speculations and even more selective omissions of elementary facts that are both relevant and easily obtainable.

So enjoy...

Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?

and...

Khashoggi’s Muslim Brotherhood Ties Don’t Fit the Left’s Get-Trump Narrative

Elsewhere, Rush debunked the Apple watch recording the murder theory by discussing the sheer logistics and technical capabilities of the watch (see here if you are interested). He can do that credibly since he's a huge fan of Apple products and often does a technical segment about them on his show.

Michael

7 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Elsewhere, Rush debunked the Apple watch recording the murder theory by discussing the sheer logistics and technical capabilities of the watch (see here if you are interested). He can do that credibly since he's a huge fan of Apple products and often does a technical segment about them on his show.

Limbaugh does indeed know his shit when it comes to Apple products and apps, but he erred in his analysis of the Khashoggi murder by not looking at the actual physical plot of the consulate. He made mistaken assumptions about distances. Apparently he envisioned the consulate building and grounds as being something akin to Hollywood's depictions of sprawling modern American facilities at Langley or Quantico. The reality is quite different. The consulate in Istanbul is cramped and tiny, with external public walks, driveways and parking area right up next to the building. Every square inch of it is within range of an Apple Watch to communicate with its host phone.

J

7 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

If anyone is interested in layman language facts about Khashoggi, albeit wedded to a message that the left and its fake news press is trying to use this affair in all ways they can to get Trump, here are a couple of recent transcripts by Rush Limbaugh.

Amidst all the yelling in the press, I have not seen many of the simply biographical things he says.

I wish I had time to condense these transcripts for you, but I don't right now. They are a bit long, but the illumination they give is well worth the time spent reading them if you are truly interested in this story.

You will come away from reading them with a vastly different perspective on who Khashoggi was than you did before you read them. I don't mean an emotional good guy-bad guy perspective. I mean simply identifying who the dude was and what he did in life. This also applies to the Crown Prince and even the context.

The way the press presents this entire story is not accurate at the foundation, mixing some facts with lots of ham-handed speculations and even more selective omissions of elementary facts that are both relevant and easily obtainable.

So enjoy...

Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?

and...

Khashoggi’s Muslim Brotherhood Ties Don’t Fit the Left’s Get-Trump Narrative

Very calm and reasonable analyses. The tone almost hypnotized me, even though Limbaugh is one of Them™.

J

Wouldn't most  consulates/embassies have 'jamming' techniques to thwart data transfers , both in and out of the physical structure regardless size ?

20 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

Fake news is everywhere.

It's coming from inside the house ...

Trump doubts Saudi account of journalist’s death: ‘There’s been deception, and there’s been lies’

 

Quote

[...] Trump had told reporters Friday that the Saudi explanation was credible, but U.S. officials said he has privately grimaced that his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s close relationship with the crown prince has become a liability and left the White House with no good options.

In the interview, Trump defended Kushner as doing a “very good job” but acknowledged that he and the crown prince, both in their 30s, are relatively young for the amount of power they wield.

“They’re two young guys. Jared doesn’t know him well or anything. They are just two young people. They are the same age. They like each other, I believe,” Trump said.

The Trump administration made its relationship with Mohammed a linchpin of its Middle East policy, relying on him to help strike a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis and unite the Arab world against Iran. Now, the Saudi government’s handling of the killing of a Washington Post contributing columnist has tarnished Mohammed’s image as the Trump administration is questioning the value of its high-profile partnership with him.

Trump reiterated that the United States should not let the incident interrupt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing a $110 billion arms sale with Riyadh he announced last year that analysts have said is inflated.

“It’s the largest order in history,” Trump said. “To give that up would hurt us far more than it hurts them. Then all they’ll do is go to Russia or go to China. All that’s doing is hurting us.”

“With that being said, something will take place,” Trump added.

[...]

"He has privately grimaced ..." about Young Jared.  Who hasn't?

"Did my appearance with Van Jones help out my father-in-law?"

On 10/21/2018 at 3:49 PM, william.scherk said:

"He has privately grimaced ..." about Young Jared.  Who hasn't?

So, today, Turkish big man Erdogan put his counters on the table. His biggest claim was that official Saudi is lying, that Khashoggi's murder was planned in advance. He also demanded the suspects be tried in Turkey. A bit of a wash, on a day when the US President also spoke on Khashoggi, a day of continued hoopla. It won't surprise you that Scott Adams has a new Khashoggi video out this morning. Cawfee Tawk.

Here's young-ish in comparison otherwise silent Jared, who is a Special Assistant. A gentle encounter. Jared is such a dreamboat.

Meanwhile, a couple headlines from the thrashy part of the Hoopla pool:

"Somebody really messed up" sez the Prez:

Edited October 24, 2018 by william.scherk

Okay, I've come up with a solution that should appeal to everyone: Let's blame the killing of Khashoggi on that inflammatory YouTube video by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Those fifteen or whatever guys finally got internet, saw the vid, got super pissed off, and decided to fly over to Constantinople and kick some random ass. They just happened to stop in at the consulate when Khashoggi was there, and the bad luck landed on him. Wrong place, wrong time. The dudes didn't even know who he was at the time. He just happened to be there when they boiled over and frickin' lost it.

There. Done. Solved. We know, based on history, that it's a story that the left and its press will find totally plausible. More prison time for Nakoula, for some technical violation on taxes or something, and everyone  is happy.

Just as the US got in bed with the USSR to fight you know who, what's really to complain about these days?

--Brant

"What's really to complain about these days?  We have nothing to complain about but complaints themselves." Checks and balances, but.

My favourite part of the dance of the swords is that rumoured deal to install nuclear power in the kingdom. This purportedly involved Michael Flynn.  Which name pops up in connection with the latest official mimeograph from the House of Saud: Saudi intelligence chief blamed for Khashoggi murder met with ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn: report

Yes, the fresh mimeograph update from the House is that the the death of Khashoggi was premedited. By whom?  Well, the crown prince will soon let us know the official details, sources say.

Quote

 

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor announced that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi had been premeditated, suggesting that the regime was revamping its official story once again.

Previously, the Saudis had claimed that Khashoggi had died in an accident after getting in an altercation with Saudi officials at the Turkish consulate.

 

 

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/saudi-intelligence-chief-blamed-khashoggi-murder-met-ex-trump-adviser-michael-flynn-report/

On 10/25/2018 at 7:13 PM, william.scherk said:

"My favourite part of the dance of the swords is that rumoured deal to install nuclear power in the kingdom. This purportedly involved Michael Flynn. 

Muh, muh...