Oct 122018
 
 October 12, 2018  Posted by at 1:12 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Alfred Eisenstaedt Egyptian Fishing Boats. Suez Canal near Port Said 1935

 

According to Middle East Eye, Richard Branson, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Economist editor-In-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, New York Times, Financial Times, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshah, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and AOL founder Steve Case have all withdrawn from Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative conference, to be held this month in Riyadh. Branson also put a $1 billion investment plan on hold.

Also, on Wednesday, former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz said that he had suspended his role on the board of Saudi Arabia’s planned mega business zone NEOM, to which he was named on Tuesday. The Harbour Group, a Washington firm that has been advising Saudi Arabia since April 2017, ended its $80,000 a month contract on Thursday. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is still scheduled to speak at the conference, as is Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, but they won’t risk the damage to their reputations.

All this is due, obviously, to the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a former close aquaintance of the Saud family, who moved to the US and wrote for the Washington Post (how’s Amazon’s Saudi business, Jeff Bezos?) after falling out with the House of Saud.

As the what someone actually labeled “unfolding diplomatic crisis” takes shape, there is really only one thing to say about these people and organizations: they the worst group of hypocrites ever. And their reasons to boycott the conference must be questioned.

Because before Khashoggi vanished they all apparently though it was quite okay to go feed at the Saud trough, despite the still ongoing slaughter of millions of people in the ‘war’ in Yemen. Which makes one suspect it’s not so much about their principles but about their public image.

Donald Trump said he won’t stop weapons sales to the Saudi’s because they would just buy their arms from someone else, like Russia (it would be interesting to get Putin’s view on Khashoggi). And while Trump is completely wrong here, at least he’s not hypocritical about it.

Not selling guns and tanks is by no means the most forceful action vs MBS and his dad, and not just because they can buy them elsewhere. What’s much stronger as a protest against what apparently happened to Khashoggi is to hit the Sauds where it hurts: in their wallet. That wallet is being filled by the sale of oil.

Simply stop buying their oil. Tell Shell and Exxon and BP and Total to get the hell out of the country. It’s just that to top off the hypocrisy, the best -only?- replacement for Saudi oil is Russian oil, and the US and Europe are engaged in a long drawn out smear campaign to isolate Russia from their world order.

But as long as Richard Branson flies his planes on Saudi oil, what’s the use of him boycotting a conference? Well, other than he hopes it makes him look good in the eyes of the world and feel good about himself? The carnage in Yemen has been going on for years, and all that time Branson has been silent. And was planning to get into a $1 billion investment as emaciated Yemeni babies are fed leaves.

And the idea is not to single him out, those major media organizations and the World Bank are just as bad. They all just hope that no-one will notice or speak out when they grab the Saudi money, and that when they are caught in the middle they will collect applause for making their ‘heroic’ decision not to attend a conference.

That said, it’s interesting to see the story move through the media. Is it the power of Jeff Bezos that gets it so much -and sustained- attention? Did the Saudi’s know that Turkey had their consulate bugged? Isn’t that against international law? How much Saudi oil does Turkey use? Did US intelligence know what was going to happen? Did Turkey?

Why so much more interest in this case than all the other disappearing journalists? Khashoggi is/was no Christ; he was close to the royal family for years while women and gay people and dissidents were under severe threat.

Just more hypocrisy. And if we want to end that, let’s boycott Saudi oil. Let’s use different oil, or none. And until then let’s not fall for the stage performances of all those who all of a sudden want to be seen as principled actors. That’s just about as bad as sawing a guy into pieces.

 

 

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  • #43326

    Alfred Eisenstaedt Egyptian Fishing Boats. Suez Canal near Port Said 1935   According to Middle East Eye, Richard Branson, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ec
    [See the full post at: Ban Saudi Oil]

    #43331
    zerosum
    Participant

    I wonder if its a good idea to keep all your rich relative locked up in a hotel room until they share their wealth?

    #43333
    TheTrivium4TW
    Participant

    Dr. D, you made an observation about markets existing for price discovery.

    An unnamed Rothschild disagrees with that assessment, and in no uncertain terms.

    I posted his exact quote on the relevant forum, which is linked below. You probably won’t be surprised as to his claimed role for the stock markets, especially once he expresses it. It is kind of like a “duh” moment. At least it was for me.

    Of Course The Fed Is Crazy

    #43334
    TheTrivium4TW
    Participant

    “Keep in mind that the popular model of WORLD WAR is a concept whose time has come and gone. It is an obsolete strategy…from our side anyway.

    The trend-line favors integration and globalization. The WORLD WAR model promotes NATIONALISM…us vs them.

    This is the ERA of the BIG EVENT. Global spectacles where all will be watching, and to some degree, invested. The 9/11 show garnered the sympathy of many of the world’s population…later to be lost, of course. Watch for similar BIG EVENTS coming to a neighborhood near you!

    Laughing out Loud!

    Of course, the risk of any one human being killed is infinitesimal, but the risk of what is happening every day, every second to your life and odds of survival is 100%, or higher!

    The current process is that of grinding wheat kernels into a fine powder, which scatters at the first sign of wind (note – referring to the machinations of their debt-based monetary system).

    Catherine Fitts, a knowing human, has defined the current phenomena as SLOW BURN. Exactly correct. Stress levels are high anticipating the next big thing while the degradation of EVERYTHING continues unnoticed. Wheat into flour.

    The boiling frog syndrome.

    The ruling elites use of the Corporation as a SHIELD and tool of oppression has been going on for decades! How could one seriously believe that is NEW in any sense of the word?”
    ~Unnamed Rothschild

    https://ia802300.us.archive.org/8/items/rofschildv1/IAmARofschildAxeMeAQuestion.html

    #43339
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I agree, ban Saudi oil and the export of all offensive weapons systems.
    Fat chance for that…………

    #43340
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Goes to show how journalists think: a thousand guys blown apart, dismembered, a country of a million starved, poisoned, destroyed? Meh. But ONE JOURNALIST??? OMG stop the world something terrible has happened!!! Call out the boycotts, the Marines, even JP Morgan if we have to!!! …And then there’s ISIS which they fully and openly funded, after discussing it for years, and even having the U.S. attempt to take over Syria for them as far back as the 50’s. …And did I mention when they invaded Bahrain?

    But there was a journalist. Really.

    As in they are the ME generation, narcissistic beyond imagining, and only care for themselves. Really.

    When Saudi oil goes down, the Petrodollar goes down. But the U.S. was going to take Saudi down LAST, after the other 5 nations, ending with Syria, and then facing Iran. But since Saudi has no more oil, I guess the time is now.

    Related, while the U.S. was doing what they do best, a circus show, Putin signed India on to 6 nuke plants and a massive oil pipeline down the Silk Road. Guess Oceania don’t provide India with outdated energy no more. As a market as massive as Europe, let the fireworks begin.

    #43345
    Degringolade
    Participant

    I am publishing this over at my place on Monday. But since AE is an important source for me, I thought that I would let folks preview it here. Since I am a vulgar person (6 years in the infantry and 25 years in the lab lead to such social awkwardness) I will not be offended should Raul decide to remove this.

    As always, thanks Ilargi for your work. I promise to send a donation as soon as I stop being poor.

    Its Such a Crock

    So, MBS and his oil-rich assholes decide to snuff a journalist and the world come sunglued.

    Really?

    The Saudi’s attacked the world trade center, have been stirring up trouble in Iraq and Syria ever since, and have been killing Yemeni children at an alarming clip for a couple of years now. It is not like we haven’t known for years that they were bastards.

    So what made the difference now. Why, they killed a journalist!!

    Doesn’t that say everything about how we think. The folks who run Saudi Arabia are fucking scum. But since they are oil-producing scum, we have been giving them a free pass for years as long as they keep the oil spigots open.

    At a minimum tens of thousands of people have been killed. The bastards even manage to throw missiles into school buses full of children and we ignore them.

    But now they have committed a true crime. They have killed a journalist. A hellfire and a school bus are page seven news but a Saudi journalist being killed (I would guess that since he was coming out of the embassy, he was shaking down the “kingdom” for coins not to publish) the world is turned upside down.

    There are not that many “journalists” anymore. We only have people who try to control what we think. The idea of presenting facts in a greater context is a thing of the long ago. It is all about controlling the narrative now, making certain that your own views and those of your corporate masters control the information that the masses think so that corporate profits can be higher.

    When I am my most cynical, I wonder if the corporate media’s current epiphany that the Saudis are a bunch of bastards is in any way connected to the ever-increasing water cut at Gwahar
    i
    If you want to stop by on Monday ….. https://mghtaswellliebackandenjoyit.blogspot.com/

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