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The Saudi government is continually getting up to some atrocity or other, be it in Yemen or within the areas under its control. Mostly this goes unmentioned in

The Saudi government is continually getting up to some atrocity or other, be it in Yemen or within the areas under its control. Mostly this goes unmentioned in US media because the Saudis bank the majority of their oil profits into various secretive Wall Street funds (aka petrodollar recycling). For example (two weeks ago): https://dawnmena.org/the-jeddah-demolitions-forced-evictions-and-neighborhood-destructions-put-more-than-a-million-residents-at-risk/ https://dawnmena.org/the-jeddah-demolitions-forced-evictions... > "In October 2021, Saudi authorities began to demolish thousands of homes throughout numerous neighborhoods in south Jeddah as part of the plan to redevelop the area as part of the Jeddah Central Project. While public criticism of the Saudi government is rare and scarcely tolerated, Saudi citizens nonetheless demonstrated on various dates in February 2022 against these demolitions and forced evictions, which occurred predominantly in densely-populated neighborhoods including several working-class neighborhoods Saudi officials consider slums." Even the 'political left' in the US ignores this behavior by the House of Saud (widespread in eastern Shia zones of Saudi Arabia, with similar tensions among the southern tribal groups bordering Yemen), although if it was the Israelis doing a similar scale demolition in Gaza it'd likely be at least something news outlets mentioned. It certainly makes American claims about being a global supporter of human rights and democracy pretty laughable.

Swenrekcah 4y ago
The answer to this is more support for democracy everywhere, more support for democratic institutions, more support for free media, more support for green energy and more opposition to those that seek to divide and spread disinterest and cynicism.
- yucky 4y ago
  - Swenrekcah 4y ago
    That approach is misguided in my opinion and only leads I believe to a different kind of discrimination and resentment. However my experience is also that relatively few people actually want this, and it's played up a bit by those that benefit from fear and division.
    - yucky 4y ago
      If few people want it, why are there multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court this term to determine the legality of it? Why does every Fortune 500 company have DEI policies, and how are they enforced?
  - coldtea 4y ago
    Or those even more common, powerful, and problematic, that insist they don't care for race and gender, and preach "democracy" and "openess" as lip service, and then they go and do treat people and countries differently based on those characteristics(race, gender, etc), and even leverage them in a "divide and conquer" way.
    - yucky 4y ago
      How many races are there? How many genders are there? How do we differentiate between them? Yet we're supposed to take these nebulous categories seriously enough to treat people differently based on these characteristics that can't even be properly delineated or defined? If these things exist on a spectrum and can't be clearly defined (even worse, purely self-defined), then there is no logical argument to categorize people into these categories for any use whatsoever.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
coldtea 4y ago
>Mostly this goes unmentioned in US media because the Saudis bank the majority of their oil profits into various secretive Wall Street funds (aka petrodollar recycling). For example (two weeks ago) It's mostly because they've historically been an ally. Helps with oil and with dirty business abroad.
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  I'd replace 'an ally' with 'our henchman' for reasons of historical accuracy. The whole BCCI story - a CIA front, a global drug-money-laundering center, and a financier of Osama Bin Laden (back when he was also 'an ally' in Afghanistan) is a good example: > "the story of this bank—the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or BCCI—takes place decades ago, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s." https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/07/the-dictator-run-bank-that-tells-the-story-of-americas-foreign-corruption/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/07/the-dictator-run-bank-t... https://www.newsweek.com/cia-and-bcci-202850 https://www.newsweek.com/cia-and-bcci-202850
  - dmix 4y ago
    The CIA knew about Bin-Laden but the reason why he wasn't 'caught' before 9/11 isn't because of some money'd conspiracy? There's plenty of evidence there were two highly motivated groups trailing the participants of 9/11 but the FBI failed because of information held back by them by compartmentalization between agencies. Which was (allegedly) solved via the DHS. I haven't seen anyone suggest that has any correlation to why Osama was allowed to survive for so long? Intel agencies make dangerous and extremely cynical decisions to dabble in black markets, which need more daylight. 100x. But lets be reasonable here
    - photochemsyn 4y ago
      I don't think OBL became an 'official enemy' of the USA until the mid-1990s, by which time he'd moved to Sudan, and apparently what set him off was infidel US soldiers on holy Saudi land during the Gulf War II (I being the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s). BCCI had mostly been dissolved by then, although some remnants and associates then went on to become 'Al Qaeda's Bank'.

Swenrekcah 4y ago

The answer to this is more support for democracy everywhere, more support for democratic institutions, more support for free media, more support for green energy and more opposition to those that seek to divide and spread disinterest and cynicism.

yucky 4y ago
- Swenrekcah 4y ago
  That approach is misguided in my opinion and only leads I believe to a different kind of discrimination and resentment. However my experience is also that relatively few people actually want this, and it's played up a bit by those that benefit from fear and division.
  - yucky 4y ago
    If few people want it, why are there multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court this term to determine the legality of it? Why does every Fortune 500 company have DEI policies, and how are they enforced?
- coldtea 4y ago
  Or those even more common, powerful, and problematic, that insist they don't care for race and gender, and preach "democracy" and "openess" as lip service, and then they go and do treat people and countries differently based on those characteristics(race, gender, etc), and even leverage them in a "divide and conquer" way.
  - yucky 4y ago
    How many races are there? How many genders are there? How do we differentiate between them? Yet we're supposed to take these nebulous categories seriously enough to treat people differently based on these characteristics that can't even be properly delineated or defined? If these things exist on a spectrum and can't be clearly defined (even worse, purely self-defined), then there is no logical argument to categorize people into these categories for any use whatsoever.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

coldtea 4y ago

>Mostly this goes unmentioned in US media because the Saudis bank the majority of their oil profits into various secretive Wall Street funds (aka petrodollar recycling). For example (two weeks ago) It's mostly because they've historically been an ally. Helps with oil and with dirty business abroad.

photochemsyn 4y ago
I'd replace 'an ally' with 'our henchman' for reasons of historical accuracy. The whole BCCI story - a CIA front, a global drug-money-laundering center, and a financier of Osama Bin Laden (back when he was also 'an ally' in Afghanistan) is a good example: > "the story of this bank—the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or BCCI—takes place decades ago, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s." https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/07/the-dictator-run-bank-that-tells-the-story-of-americas-foreign-corruption/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/07/the-dictator-run-bank-t... https://www.newsweek.com/cia-and-bcci-202850 https://www.newsweek.com/cia-and-bcci-202850
- dmix 4y ago
  The CIA knew about Bin-Laden but the reason why he wasn't 'caught' before 9/11 isn't because of some money'd conspiracy? There's plenty of evidence there were two highly motivated groups trailing the participants of 9/11 but the FBI failed because of information held back by them by compartmentalization between agencies. Which was (allegedly) solved via the DHS. I haven't seen anyone suggest that has any correlation to why Osama was allowed to survive for so long? Intel agencies make dangerous and extremely cynical decisions to dabble in black markets, which need more daylight. 100x. But lets be reasonable here
  - photochemsyn 4y ago
    I don't think OBL became an 'official enemy' of the USA until the mid-1990s, by which time he'd moved to Sudan, and apparently what set him off was infidel US soldiers on holy Saudi land during the Gulf War II (I being the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s). BCCI had mostly been dissolved by then, although some remnants and associates then went on to become 'Al Qaeda's Bank'.