AP photographer Rashed Rashid being rushed into the hospital by his colleagues after he was shot in the leg by an Israeli military sniper while filming a Great March of Return protest in Gaza and wearing a PRESS vest pic.twitter.com/u3nFjlUX39

— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) November 20, 2018

Oh, no. Violence against journalists, the most chosen and protected people ever.

NYT: 

An Associated Press cameraman was shot and wounded Monday while covering a demonstration in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses and medical officials said.

Rashed Rashid, 47, was hit in the leg during a weekly protest next to the Israeli border. Doctors said he suffered multiple bone fractures above the ankle and would need surgery.

Witnesses said he was about 600 meters (1,969 feet) from the fence, far from the protesters. He was operating a live camera on an elevated area overlooking the protest and wearing a blue helmet and brown protective vest with the word “PRESS” written in white.

Co-workers said the fire appeared to come from the Israeli side of the border.

I’m sure that the Jewish media is going to run to crucify Israel for sniping this journalist. Right?

CNBC:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on his defense of Saudi Arabia, thanking the kingdom for helping to keep a lid on oil prices, amid bipartisan criticism for his statement on the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On Tuesday, Trump declared he would stand by Saudi Arabia, even though the CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s killing. After releasing the statement, Trump repeatedly linked his position to his desire to boost arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s role in preventing an oil price spike.

Early Wednesday morning, Trump took to Twitter to promote the recent sharp pullback in oil prices and to praise Saudi Arabia.

Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018

Trump’s tweet underscored a message that is drawing fire from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill: The administration will overlook human rights abuses — even the murder of a U.S. resident like Khashoggi — if making a stand imperils the president’s pursuit of economic growth.

How dare Bad Orange Man try to save you money on gas, instead of getting into a fight with the Saudis over killing a Saudi journalist in Turkey?

How absolutely dare he?

AMERICA FIRST!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018

I think that they should go back to telling us about how American soldiers really want to die in the Middle East instead of defending the border of their own country.

This is not a good look for them.

These America Jews are burning their own greatest ally in the Middle East, I guess to attack Trump.

CBS News:

The CIA has reportedly concluded that journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has so far denied any involvement in the killing, according to sources cited by multiple news outlets.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the crown prince who was based in the U.S. and wrote for the Washington Post, was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The CIA’s assessment appeared to be largely based on the control held by bin Salman, according to sources in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the AP. In other words, the murder could not have been carried out without the knowledge of bin Salman, often referred to by his initials, MBS.

The CIA declined to comment. U.S. intelligence officials told CBS News that intelligence agencies believe the killing was premeditated, and one source confirmed that the CIA has assessed that MBS ordered it.

In the first two weeks following Khashoggi’s disappearance, Saudi officials denied any knowledge while Turkish officials anonymously said he had been murdered inside the consulate by a 15-member hit squad. On Oct. 19, the Saudi government admitted for the first time that Khashoggi had been murdered.

But it characterized the incident as a rogue operation and denied involvement by MBS. An official assessment that MBS ordered the killing would have important implications for U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia.

Israel itself is arguing that the world should just forget about this and everyone should move on with their lives.

Diaspora Jews were very angry about this.

I don’t really think the world is likely to move on.

More than likely, this will result in the Kingdom being globally isolated indefinitely, as we’ve already seen happening.

China will still do business with them, but China isn’t keen on the whole “war war war rah rah rah” agenda that Saudi is used to representing. China just wants to peacefully take over the world by buying everything, and that strategy is working very well for them, so though they’ll trade with Saudi, they’re not going to get involved in their weird global terror bullshit, and will probably put pressure on them to stop it.

The one single Trump official who can get a softball interview on CNN.

What is different about him that he gets so much different treatment than every single other member of the group, I wonder?

Let me just be clear here: this is CNN. Interviewing a member of the Trump administration. About this whole Saudi journalist situation that they’re all losing their minds over.

And it’s softball.

This is really all the evidence that you need that this guy is bad, bad news and he needs to be removed from the White House. He set up this Saudi disaster by being friends with the lunatic Prince Salman – who is often called “MbS” by Westerners – and it all falls on Trump. Then he can go on CNN and get a kiddie interview making him look like a serious person.

Trump gets attacked and he’s never done anything as dumb as making friends with an Arabian lunatic.

The President appears to have believed that allowing Kushner – who happens to be Jewish – to deal with Middle East issues, he’s somehow protecting his agenda from Jews. But that did not go that way. If it had gone that way (I knew it wouldn’t), then okay – politics are politics. But it did not go that way.

Jews are still at Trump’s throat. It isn’t getting better, it is getting worse. This guy has done nothing except cause problems.

Even the neocon lunatic John Bolton is getting in line and wants to go to war with Mexico now instead of Syria or North Korea (that guy just wants a war, just point him in a direction that is good).

Kushner is bad news. I understand he is married to Trump’s daughter, and I feel for the President on this issue. Despite appearances, Trump is a human being and is subjected to human emotions.

But the entire world is now on his back.

He can’t let his feelings for his daughter cause the world to fall off.

PS

I just got this email.

Yes, this story is still going.

Trump is finally going hard, saying they’re lying.

Turkey keeps coming out with new stuff, daily.

USA Today:

Saudi Arabia started planning journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder days before he vanished inside its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday as he revealed details about the investigation into Khashoggi’s killing. 

Erdogan said Turkey had amassed evidence that clearly showed that The Washington Post columnist was killed in a premeditated and “savage” murder that involved at least three separate teams of Saudi intelligence agents, including a military general.

Erdogan was speaking to parliament as part of his pledge to unveil the “naked truth” about a case that has shocked the world and raised suspicions that a Saudi hit squad planned Khashoggi’s killing after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2, and then attempted to cover it up. Erdogan said Khashoggi was “ferociously murdered.”

He said that Saudi operatives first activated a plan to capture and kill Khashoggi after the journalist initially visited the consulate in Istanbul on Sept. 28. Ergodan called on 18 suspects — Saudi nationals all — detained in Saudi Arabia to be extradited to Turkey for trial and demanded that Saudi authorities in Riyadh provide information about who ordered the operation and the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s still missing body.

However, Ergodan made no reference to audio recordings leaked to Turkish media over the last three weeks that purport to show how Khashoggi was killed.

He said the three teams of Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul on different days and flights and some members of one of the teams went on a reconnaissance mission to a forest outside Istanbul where investigators have been searching for Khashoggi’s remains. Most of the security cameras outside the consulate were removed, he said.

I don’t think Erdogan is lying. He has no reason to pretend he has stuff he doesn’t have – he’s going to have to show it at some point, and in fact he’s saying he wants to show it.

There is no way that this was a fist fight gone wrong, or that they planned to just kidnap him. They were planning to kill him and chop him up, exactly as they did. They are that stupid. And there is no way Prince Salman – who is commonly known in the West by his nickname, “MbS” – didn’t order it.

Trump needs to distance, distance, distance. Cut the cord. Cut the military sales. Put Ivanka at the UN and get her and Kushner out of Washington.

As Ann Coulter said.

There are allegations now that Saudi had more embassy plots.

AFP:

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has sent a chill through exiled dissidents, with many revealing discreet government attempts to lure them to their embassies as an apparent “trap” to return them to the kingdom.

…

Saudi exiles in three different countries have recounted what appeared to be official attempts to bait them into the kingdom’s diplomatic missions, exposing them to potentially the same fate as Khashoggi.

Omar Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi activist exiled in Canada, said he was approached earlier this year by Saudi officials who urged him to visit their embassy with them to collect a new passport.

“They were saying ‘it will only take one hour, just come with us to the embassy’,” Abdulaziz, who rankled authorities with a YouTube show that satirized the Saudi leadership, said in a video posted on Twitter.

He refused to go, fearing a trap, and two of his brothers and a handful of his friends were arrested in the kingdom, he said, thus validating his suspicions.

The Washington Post said it received hours-long tapes from Abdulaziz of his conversations with those officials, which he secretly recorded.

Abdullah Alaoudh, a Saudi scholar at Georgetown, said he was subjected to a similar “plot” in Washington.

Last year, when Alaoudh, son of prominent cleric Salman al-Awda who is jailed and faces trial in the kingdom, applied to renew his passport at the Saudi embassy in Washington, he says he was told to return to the kingdom to complete what appeared to be basic formalities.

“They offered me a ‘temporary pass’ that would allow me to return to Saudi Arabia,” Alaoudh told AFP.

“I knew it was a trap and just left with my expired passport.”

Canada and the US.

Wew.

Chopping up in first world countries…

I believe this is probably true.

If they did it once, why would they not do it other times?

Maybe they got away with it before, when there wasn’t a wifey outside waiting in the parking lot, and the victim wasn’t a WaPo journalist (who is obviously also some kind of intelligence asset shill for the Muslim Brotherhood, possibly employed by some Western intelligence agency)?

I don’t care if people kill their enemies. I understand that. And I don’t think it’s any of my business, unless their enemies are my friends. But what I do care about is people who are fucking exceptional. And this is some of the most exceptional shit I’ve ever seen.

We as a country simply cannot be tied to people this stupid.

This is the perfect opportunity for us to get the hell out of Dodge – and by “Dodge,” I mean the shithole Middle East.

We can keep paying the Jews. Fine. Whatever. But the rest of this shit just needs to end.

Syrian war is over. Iran is ready to make a deal.

We have our own oil.

Let’s just get out. 

There’s a story here, more of this shit I’m bored of.

But let’s first ask: why is the Saudi Foreign minister a white guy?

Note that this is not “he looks pretty white,” like you might say about a North African Arab. This is like, “this guy is obviously British, what is going on here?”

The answer is: there is no answer.

When I saw this guy, I just assumed “oh this guy is a British Islamic convert who they’re using in the government because of his high IQ.” And then looked it up expecting to have that confirmed.

However, there was no confirmation.

His Wiki says he was born in Saudi.

And it does not mention anything about him having foreign ancestry.

Other than Shiite Alawites who are a special sect that stayed white on purpose, I have never seen a single Arab that looked like this.

Anyway, he’s a good guy to go on American TV, instead one of these comic book villains.

That was a good move. They should probably put him in charge of the country, because I think he wouldn’t have ordered someone chopped-up in his own embassy.

The interview is mildly interesting. They are saying now that they don’t know where the body is and actually have absolutely no idea what ever happened, but they’ll get to the bottom of it.

Finally, Trump is backing away from this mess.

Get ‘er done.

Washington Post:

President Trump strongly criticized Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi late Saturday, saying that “obviously there’s been deception, and there’s been lies.”

At the same time, Trump defended the oil-rich monarchy as an “incredible ally” and kept open the possibility that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not order Saudi agents to kill Khashoggi.

“Nobody has told me he’s responsible. Nobody has told me he’s not responsible. We haven’t reached that point . . . I would love if he wasn’t responsible,” Trump said in a phone interview with The Washington Post.

The kingdom’s claim that Khashoggi was killed after a fistfight escalated inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul was met with a torrent of international skepticism Saturday over how a team of Saudi agents could fly to Istanbul to meet Khashoggi and eventually kill him without the knowledge or consent of the crown prince, the de facto leader.

Yeah, “fistfight gone wrong” is about as dumb as excuses go.

But it fits in with the stupidity of killing someone in your own embassy in the first place.

Israel assassinates people all the time in foreign countries, and they’ve shown that the best method is just to ride up on someone on the street on a motorcycle and shoot them with a handgun.

Bing bang boom.

They might also have poisoned his toothpaste.

Prince Salman – commonly known in the West as “MbS” – is very close with a lot of top Jews, and in fact is a puppet of the Jews. Why didn’t he call up one of them and be like “yo, gotta kill this guy in Turkey, how to do?”

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.

Another Jew creating liabilities for Donald Trump.

Color me shocked.

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.

Maybe the solution is to just not have a Middle East policy?

This isn’t like the North Korea situation, where you have a guy who could realistically fire a nuke at you or attack his friendly neighbor, a country that makes great TVs and has a bunch of hot sluts who make great music.

There is no threat from anyone in the Middle East, and there is no value there to protect.

Yes, the evangelicals insist on money to Israel – whatever then. Keep giving Israel money. Let them figure their own shit out.

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.

U.S. officials must now account for the glaring inconsistencies between the accounts of Turkish investigators and that of the Saudi government released Saturday.

A key piece of evidence is the audio recording that led Turkish investigators to conclude days ago that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team dispatched to Istanbul. Trump on Saturday denied that any U.S. officials have heard audio, seen video or read any transcripts from the Turks.

But CIA officials have listened to an audio recording that Turkish officials say proves the journalist was killed and dismembered by the Saudi team, according to people familiar with the matter. If verified, the recording would make it difficult for the United States to accept the Saudi version that Khashoggi’s death was effectively an accident. Officials agreed to speak for this article on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.

Not ever going to take WaPo’s word for anything, but that rings true.

True enough that they could have just faked the sources and printed it, because it is obvious with or without a source.

The “fistfight gone wrong” story is retarded. And there is no reason for Turkey to lie about having tapes, because they know they’re eventually going to have to produce the tapes.

This tension has put a particularly bright spotlight on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom Trump sent to Ankara and Riyadh this past week to manage the ballooning controversy. Pompeo and State Department officials have gone out of their way to deny that the top diplomat listened to audio provided by the Turks. “I’ve heard no tape, I’ve seen no transcript,” Pompeo told reporters late this past week.

…

“If Secretary Pompeo was offered to listen to the audio recording, he was smart to say no,” said Soner Cagaptay, a Turkey scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “You can’t unlisten to it, and once you listen to it, you can’t say certain things.”

…

Trump showed an interest in obtaining the recordings but said they have been out of reach so far. “I’ve heard all about the videos or the tapes. Nobody would get it faster than me. Nobody has been able to show it to me,” he said.

In its announcement Saturday, the Saudi government said it fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudis as a result of the initial investigation. The preliminary probe conducted by the prosecutor found that Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was strangled after a fistfight with a group of Saudi “suspects.”

At least 12 members of the Saudi team are connected to Saudi security services, and several have links to Mohammed, according to a review of passport records, social media, local media reports and other material.

On Saturday, King Salman increased his support for the crown prince, putting him in charge of the official review of the Saudi intelligence apparatus.

…

One U.S. official expressed dismay that Kushner’s close relationship with the crown prince was not enough to provide guardrails against the killing and now leaves the administration vulnerable to criticism that the United States is beholden to the Saudis.

The official said Trump is annoyed by a sense that he was blindsided and by what he sees as Kushner’s misjudgment. Kushner has in recent days been sidelined from the Khashoggi case, which many in the administration see as beneficial.

…

In deciding how to deal with the Saudi matter, Trump has faced conflicting advice from his advisers. His hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, has emphasized his view that the U.S.-Saudi relationship is important to containing Iran, said advisers. Kushner has also stressed the importance of keeping a strong rapport with the Saudis.

Republican Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), however, has told Trump that if he doesn’t punish the Saudis, they won’t respect him.

Lindsey O. Kikeslammer, more like!

Did not know his middle initial was “O.” I actually like him even more now.

Anyway, yeah – bored.

Let’s just do the Toby Keith thing and kill everyone in the Middle East.

Okay, so this might mean this boring story is either over or going to get more interesting.

If the latter, maybe Prince Salman (Commonly known by his initials “MbS”) releases an English-language propaganda film telling everyone on the planet that they are either with him or against him and that everyone against him is doomed.

I hope so because I’m getting real bored real fast.

Reuters:

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has died, and said it fired two senior officials over the incident that has provoked an international outcry and strained relations between Riyadh and the West.

A statement from the Saudi public prosecutor said a fight broke out between Khashoggi and people who met him in the consulate and led to his death.

“The investigations are still underway and 18 Saudi nationals have been arrested,” the statement on state media said, adding that royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Asiri have been fired from their positions.

…

Saturday’s comments marked the first time since Khashoggi went missing that the Saudis admitted to his death.

18 days later, lol.

These are people used to getting away with everything they do, and when they got called out on this they just got really confused.

Turkish officials had said they believed he was killed in the building. Saudi Arabia had previously denied the allegations and said Khashoggi had left the building shortly after.

King Salman also ordered the formation of a ministerial committee headed by the crown prince to restructure the general intelligence agency, state media said.

Yes, put the guy who did it in charge of fixing it.

Where have I seen that strategy before?

Before the Saudi announcements, U.S. President Donald Trump said he might consider sanctions against Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, while emphasizing the importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

…

Speaking to reporters in Scottsdale, Arizona, Trump said it was too early to say what the consequences for the incident might be, but that the U.S. Congress would be involved in determining the American response.

Asked whether Saudi sanctions were one of the measures he was considering, Trump said, “Could be, could be,” though he provided no details.

“We’re going to find out who knew what when and where. And we’ll figure it out,” Trump added.

…

“Saudi Arabia has been a great ally, they’ve been a tremendous investor in the United States,” Trump said, adding, “That’s why this is so sad.”

“They agreed to spend $450 billion on buying in and investing in the United States, so I hope we can keep that open. … There are plenty of other things we can do,” he said, adding, “I might know a lot by Monday. I know a lot already.”

…

Turkey said it had not shared with any country audio recordings purportedly documenting Khashoggi’s murder inside the consulate, dismissing reports it had passed them to the United States.

“We will share the results that emerge transparently with the whole world,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak has published what it said were details from the audio, including that his torturers severed Khashoggi’s fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded and dismembered him.

So, there you have it.

I don’t think Turkey is lying about the tapes, which will show that Saudi is lying about accidentally killing him during torture. Apparently, these people were talking the entire time they were torturing and killing him, narrating the whole event.

You’ve also got footage of a top aide to the prince entering the embassy before the killing, the whole nature of the assassination – going to be very, very difficult to claim he didn’t know about it as this heats up. Certainly waiting for 18 days didn’t help his case any.

Who knows if Trump will be able to keep the arms deal. I would rather not. But either way, the game has definitely just changed dramatically. Saudi is not going to be the second greatest ally that it once was.

I feel bad for Trump. This is such a kike scam. It was the kikes who wanted him to deal with Saudi, then when he does it’s the kikes who claim that he’s responsible for their behavior.

As I’ve advised from the beginning, I think he should cut it off.

Finally, the President seems to have figured out which way the wind is blowing on this thing.

From the beginning, there was no chance of anything other than a catastrophic breakdown of Saudi Arabia’s role in the international scene.

And as I keep saying: we don’t have anything to lose here.

Whatever money we were supposedly going to be making on the arms deal is outweighed by the money we are going to save by withdrawing from the region.

The Hill:

President Trump issued his sternest rebuke of Saudi Arabia so far on Thursday afternoon, telling reporters on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews that “it certainly looks” as though the Washington Post columnist was murdered, and he threatened “very severe” consequences for Saudi Arabia if they’re found to be responsible.

Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced his withdrawal from a high-profile investment summit in Riyadh next week, marking the administration’s first public rebuke of the Saudis over the incident. He announced his plans after discussions with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with top Saudi and Turkish officials earlier this week.

Pompeo said Thursday that Saudi Arabia would have “a few more days” to complete an investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi, who entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and hasn’t been seen since. He said he emphasized to the Saudis that the U.S. takes this matter “very seriously.”

He also signaled that the administration would not sit back and wait for an open-ended investigation by Saudi officials to stretch on for weeks.

…

After days of silence, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that it appeared the administration was trying to protect the Saudi royal family from a public relations fallout.

Corker told The Washington Post that the administration had clamped down on intelligence related to Khashoggi’s disappearance in an effort to avoid implicating senior Saudi officials.

Yes, of course.

Bob Cocker is running out of chances to stab Trump in the back – gotta stick that shiv while he still can. Only a few more weeks before resignation.

This whole debacle has just been a pile-on of President Trump for doing exactly what every single other president has done since the 1930s and being a great ally to Saudi Arabia. The fact that he is only doing it as a favor to the Jews makes it all the more disgusting that he’s being attacked over it.

This is like if you show pity on a fat chick and sleep with her after she begs you to and she responds by accusing you of rape.

While the president and his senior advisers responded more forcefully Thursday, they also sent mixed signals by leaving the probe in Saudi hands.

…

New reports this week from Turkey have said a team of Saudi agents intercepted Khashoggi inside the consulate, cut off his fingers, beheaded him and then dismembered his body.

lol I hadn’t heard they cut off his fingers.

Who does that?

And why?

Generally, you torture someone to extract information. You’re not going to get any information from someone whose fingers you just cut off. Furthermore, you’re not really going to be doing much torturing, because if you cut someone’s fingers off, they’re going to go into shock.

The only reason you would do this is if you were some kind of sadistically evil cartoon character…

Yeah right. Okay.

Saudi rulers are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to the crown prince for the alleged murder, according to The New York Times.

That would represent a significant shift for Saudi Arabia, one that would also absolve Crown Prince Mohammed but subsequently contradict reported U.S. and Turkish intelligence showing he was connected to the operation.

…

Republicans have indicated they would not accept a probe designed to exonerate top Saudi officials.

“America can’t excuse & minimize the brutal & gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident & columnist,” Mitt Romney, a Republican Senate candidate in Utah and the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, tweeted Thursday. “Our country is defined by human values, by principle above convenience, & by commitment to morality. We must subject the perpetrators of this outrage to withering sanction.”

Oh Jesus have mercy.

Mitt Romney swoops in with “defined by values.”

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle this guy being back in the Senate, guys.

He’s going to be Jeff Flake on steroids.

Every single news piece is going to be “we asked Mitt Romney what he thought about [any situation] and he said ‘our values.'”

But it might have the reverse effect. These people literally are the meme. And we keep mocking them for saying “our values” but they can’t do anything but keep saying it because there is no other way to communicate this especially vague notion of “rule by emotional impact statement.”

Vice President Pence offered some of his most pointed comments yet on the case, telling reporters in Colorado on Thursday that “if a journalist lost their life at the hand of violence, that is a threat to a free and independent press around the world and there will be consequences.”

How about you say that about my domain, Pence?

One journalist being murdered by one government is not a threat to global press freedom.

Furthermore, journalists deserve to have their fingers cut off and then be killed and chopped into pieces with a bone saw by people listening to The Misfits on their headphones.

I guess you would listen to “Where Eagles Dare” while cutting someone up with a bone saw. I mean if someone put my on the spot and was like “you have to cut up this reporter with a bonesaw, what song are you going to listen to while you do it?” I’d pick that. I wish these reports would have said what song they were listening to.

The above is yesterday’s news – this morning we are hearing that the king is reigning in his son.

Which is what I said from the beginning.

The only way Saudi can get out of this is by throwing Prince Salman under the bus and apologizing to the world.

This is being reported by Reuters from anonymous sources. So whatever. It’s true either way, I would assume. You could just fake these sources and have it still turn out to be true. Because what the hell else are they going to do?

Reuters:

So grave is the fallout from the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that King Salman has felt compelled to intervene, five sources with links to the Saudi royal family said.

Last Thursday, Oct. 11, the king dispatched his most trusted aide, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of Mecca, to Istanbul to try to defuse the crisis.

World leaders were demanding an explanation and concern was growing in parts of the royal court that the king’s son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to whom he has delegated vast powers, was struggling to contain the fallout, the sources said.

During Prince Khaled’s visit, Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to form a joint working group to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance. The king subsequently ordered the Saudi public prosecutor to open an inquiry based on its findings.

…

Initially the king, who has handed the day-to-day running of Saudi Arabia to his son, commonly known as MbS, was unaware of the extent of the crisis, according to two of the sources with knowledge of the Saudi royal court. That was partly because MbS aides had been directing the king to glowing news about the country on Saudi TV channels, the sources said.

That changed as the crisis grew.

“Even if MbS wanted to keep this away from the king he couldn’t because the story about Khashoggi’s disappearance was on all the Arab and Saudi TV channels watched by the king,” one of the five sources said.

“The king started asking aides and MbS about it. MbS had to tell him and asked him to intervene when Khashoggi’s case became a global crisis,” this source said.

lol that is a funny scene.

This stupid old rat bastard is senile watching TV and his rat bastard 80-IQ son is telling him to watch different channels so he doesn’t find out he cut off a journalists fingers and chopped him up and basically collapsed relations with most of the entire world.

I just want to touch on this whole “MbS” thing – this is not a thing. Or rather, it was not a thing until this crisis, wherein they made it a thing by saying that it was already a thing.

I read a lot of news, and I never read about this.

This is some kind of forced meme – Prince Salman wanted this special name, because he has a nigger-tier brain and thinks that sounds cool. Probably, Jared Kushner – the only person I have read actually using these initials in a quote – told him it sounded cool.

I’ll bet these faggots have their own secret handshake too.

Point Being

I’m officially bored of this news story.

I was into it for like, a week. Now I’m not. The story about the guy who cut him up telling everyone to put on headphones while he did the sawing amused me, I guess. But mostly, I am experiencing Khashoggi fatigue.

The story is just really boring and shitty. The Saudis have killed people with impunity forever, done all kinds of atrocities and gotten away with it, then all of the sudden, because it can be used to attack Trump, it’s this huge deal. I’m also tired of all this stuff about how journalists need to be protected.

Furthermore, I’m tired of going through how I support Trump and think journalists deserve to have their fingers cut off and then be sawed into pieces, but hate Saudis and US involvement in the Middle East so am happy about this.

7:34 PM

…during the call, and told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

I thought they were going to admit it and say it was a “torture session gone wrong”?

Maybe it was fake news or maybe Pompeo told them not to.

I just don’t see where this is going.

Turkey already found traces of a “toxic substance” and new paint. There is also video of cleanup crews going in and out of the embassy.

How can Saudi possibly get out from under this?

Not worth dealing with, Trump.

Cut the cord, if oil shoots up, use an executive order for price controls until the election.

11:35 AM

The Saudi consul has fled Turkey, lol.

AP:

Turkey’s state-run news agency says the Saudi consul to Istanbul has left for Saudi Arabia, hours after Turkey said his official residence would be searched in connection with a Saudi writer’s disappearance.

The Anadolu news agency reported Tuesday that Consul Mohammed al-Otaibi flew out of the country on a 2 p.m. flight.

Saudi Arabia had no immediate comment on his departure.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry says police will search his official residence and vehicles belonging to the consulate. Authorities have offered no timeframe for those searches.

You know shit must be getting real heavy, because he couldn’t be prosecuted in Turkey as a diplomat. He has diplomatic immunity.

11:03 AM

Chad Graham (voice of the white race) is calling for sanctions.

Politico:

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday said the U.S. should “sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia” and vowed to never work with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as long as he remains in charge of the country, slamming him as “toxic” and a “wrecking ball.”

The disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the 33-year-old crown prince and royal family, ignited an international uproar after he was last seen at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

“He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey,” Graham said on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday. “And to expect me to ignore it, I feel used and abused. I was on the floor every time defending Saudi Arabia because they’re a good ally.”

He definitely was always defending Saudi Arabia.

Imagine if John McCain, ISIS supporter, greatest friend of Israel and Saudi – but also a great defender of human rights and democracy – were still alive?

What the hell would he be saying right now?

10:31 AM

Sooooo.

Mops and new paint…

RT:

A Turkish official told AP that police have found evidence inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which confirms that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed there.

The “high level official” spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity, but said that police had found “certain evidence”that Khashoggi had died in the building.

Reports in US media on Monday evening suggested that Riyadh might be preparing to admit that Khashoggi was killed as part of an unauthorized interrogation gone wrong.

…

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that some “toxic materials” in the consulate were “painted over”. Also video footage of cleaners with mops and buckets entering the building before investigators could search it has prompted speculation of a coverup.

There is just no way that this is anything other than what it looks like.

We are now nearly 24 hours out from reports that Saudi was ready to admit to the killing and say that it was an accidental death during torture, and throw someone under the bus over it. But at time of writing, that has not happened.

10:09 AM

Trump has had to come out and stated that he has no financial interests in Saudi.

For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

I get that this is a meme that they resort to whenever they are trying to frame what Trump does that they don’t like and get confused – “oh he’s trying to make money somehow” – but the fact that he is having to make public statements denying something so dumb shows that he’s been put in a very bad spot.

Time to cut them loose!

9:57 AM

These “people” are absolutely absurd.

Serious people do not wear bizarre ancient-style ethnic clothing to international meetings.

Imagine if Pompeo had been wearing this:

Or, for that matter, what if he had gone dressed like the Penguin, who he kind of looks like?

No one would think that was normal.

Everyone would be like “hey guy, why you wearing that costume? R u weird?”

Reuters:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at their meeting on Tuesday “agreed on the importance of a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation that provides answers” over Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a U.S. statement.

CNN:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with President Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton following his meetings in Riyadh.

Pompeo held separate meetings with King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the Saudi Foreign Minister, according to a statement from the State Department spokesperson. She describes those meetings as “both direct and candid.”

“While the United States has a number of regional and bilateral issues to discuss with Saudi leadership, learning what happened to Jamal Khashoggi is the primary purpose of this trip and is of great interest to the President. The Secretary has made that clear in each of his meetings today,” the statement said.

The thing about this is: they always appear to be wearing normal shoes.

Why is it that normal shoes are okay, but the rest of the getup has to be a weird costume?

If they’re going to wear costumes, why not wear the pointy camelskin slippers?

Speaking of weird, inconsistent things involving Saudis – why has no official statement been made by Pompeo or the Saudis on the current state of this situation?

Saying there’s going to be an investigation doesn’t mean much of anything. There is already an investigation.

Trump needs to just pull the plug. Every hour that goes by that he doesn’t do that, he looks worse.

There is no way to salvage this. Democrats are going to put this in midterm ads.

I’m sitting here loving witnessing the collapse of Saudi Arabia. I really hate these people.

But it’s a little bit like #MeToo. I love #MeToo, because it destroys Jews, but I don’t agree with the underlying premise that you shouldn’t pay women for sex or accept sexual favors in exchange for promotions.

Just so, I don’t believe you shouldn’t torture and chop-up journalists. That is the least of what these people deserve.

But let’s take a step back from that for a second to all of these people attacking Trump over Saudi Arabia. This is the media doing this, primarily, claiming that Trump has “enabled” the Saudis to be bad people by not enforcing a foreign policy based on “our values.”

This is the same media that falsified all that evidence to get the US into the Iraq war, which killed however many hundreds of thousands of people. That was the New York Times, remember? It was the kike Judith Miller, who printed a bunch of fake news about how Saddam was planning to nuke America, who guaranteed that that war went through.

This bitch talking about aluminum tubes, Colin Powell brings fake anthrax to the UN, bing bang boom.

There is now no question at all about this – the Iraq war was based on fake news, with the media colluding with the “intelligence community” to start that war.

Then there are all these other wars the US has fought for all of these decades. No one has explained WWII yet, let alone Vietnam or all those weird drug wars in Latin America.

Beyond that, we are allied with all of these other countries which commit all these atrocities, most notably Israel.

Saudi Arabia itself has been a US ally forever, and it has always killed dissidents. Furthermore, why is this one journalist’s life so much more important than the lives of the 50,000 dead Yemenis in the war of aggression Saudi is fighting against them?

The bottom line here is that “our values” is not a standard by which to decide foreign policy. It is an absurd joke for the US to claim to be some arbiter of humanist morality – and even if it were true that we are the goodest of all good boys, using that as the basis of foreign policy would be stupid.

So on some level, even while I hate the Saudis, allowing the media to claim a scalp here makes me a little bit uncomfortable. I think it is clearly an “own goal” like the #MeToo movement, but the #MeToo movement is what paved the way for the Kavanaugh debacle (which could have ended badly).

My point: I don’t want to see right-wingers supporting the narrative of “our foreign policy should be determined by vague moral principles that we ourselves do not uphold” simply because they hate the Saudis and all of this endless Middle East nonsense.

Rand Paul is out there using this, saying “we shouldn’t be sending foreign aid and weapons to a country that murders journalists” – but he was already calling for the same thing, before any journalist was murdered, for much better, real reasons.

It is great that Saudi is falling apart over this. But I have seen the Jews very excited about it, and I think they are excited because they are setting a precedent.

This could potentially be used against Russia, Brazil and others. Which is why I think Trump is so hesitant. Plus maybe he also had some larger scheme he was working. I assume he had some larger scheme. But I don’t think it was a good scheme. The Saudi-Trump relationship was a Jared Kushner production, and it never should have been a thing in the first place.

Trump said during the campaign that Saudis funded terrorists who kill Americans and that we should cut them off. That was the much better position. If he had held that position, he wouldn’t be in a place where he has to vouch for a lunatic.

American foreign policy should be based exclusively on what is good for America.

Period.

There should be no second, third or fourth consideration.

Most especially, the lives of brown people, journalists and brown journalists should not ever be a consideration.