Authored by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,
While turbulent during the best of times, gigantic waves of change are now sweeping across the Middle East. The magnitude is such that the impact on the global price of oil, as well as world markets, is likely to be enormous.
A dramatic geo-political realignment by Saudi Arabia is in full swing this month. It’s upending many decades of established strategic relationships among the world's superpowers and, in particular, is throwing the Middle East into turmoil.
So much is currently in flux, especially in Saudi Arabia, that nearly anything can happen next. Which is precisely why this volatile situation should command our focused attention at this time.
The main elements currently in play are these:
- A sudden and intense purging of powerful Saudi insiders (arrests, deaths, & asset seizures)
- Huge changes in domestic policy and strategy
- A shift away from the US in all respects (politically, financially and militarily)
- Deepening ties to China
- A surprising turn towards Russia (economically and militarily)
- Increasing cooperation and alignment with Israel (the enemy of my enemy is my friend?)
Taken together, this is tectonic change happening at blazing speed.
That it's receiving too little attention in the US press given the implications, is a tip off as to just how big a deal this is -- as we're all familiar by now with how the greater the actual relevance and importance of a development, the less press coverage it receives. This is not a direct conspiracy; it's just what happens when your press becomes an organ of the state and other powerful interests. Like a dog trained with daily rewards and punishments, after a while the press needs no further instruction on the house rules.
It does emphasize, however, that to be accurately informed about what's going on, we have to do our own homework. Here's a short primer to help get you started.
A Quick Primer
Unless you study it intensively, Saudi politics are difficult to follow because they are rooted in the drama of a very large and dysfunctional family battling over its immense wealth. If you think your own family is nuts, multiply the crazy factor by 1,000, sprinkle in a willingness to kill any family members who get in your way, and you'll have the right perspective for grasping how Saudi 'politics' operate.
The House of Saud is the ruling royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (hereafter referred to as "KSA") and consists of some 15,000 members. The majority of the power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of roughly 2,000 individuals. 4,000 male princes are in the mix, plus a larger number of involved females -- all trying to either hang on to or climb up a constantly-shifting mountain of power.
Here's a handy chart to explain the lineage of power in KSA over the decades:
(Source)
We’ll get to the current ruler, King Salman, and his powerful son, Mohammed Bin Salman (age 32), shortly. Before we do, though, let’s talk about the most seminal moment in recent Saudi history: the key oil-for-money-and-protection deal struck between the Nixon administration and King Faisal back in the early 1970’s.
This pivotal agreement allowed KSA to secretly recycle its surplus petrodollars back into US Treasuries while receiving US military protection in exchange. The secret was kept for 41 years, only recently revealed in 2016 due to a Bloomberg FOIA request:
The basic framework was strikingly simple. The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into Treasuries and finance America’s spending.
It took several discreet follow-up meetings to iron out all the details, Parsky said. But at the end of months of negotiations, there remained one small, yet crucial, catch: King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud demanded the country’s Treasury purchases stay “strictly secret,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by Bloomberg from the National Archives database.
“Buying bonds and all that was a strategy to recycle petrodollars back into the U.S.,” said David Ottaway, a Middle East fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington. But politically, “it’s always been an ambiguous, constrained relationship.”
(Source)
The essence of this deal is pretty simple. KSA wanted to be able to sell its oil to its then largest buyer, the USA, while also having a safe place to park the funds, plus receive military protection to boot. But it didn’t want anybody else, especially its Arab neighbors, to know that it was partnering so intimately with the US who, in turn, would be supporting Israel. That would have been politically incendiary in the Middle East region, coming as it did right on the heels of the Yom Kipper War (1973).
As for the US, it got the oil it wanted and – double bonus time here – got KSA to recycle the very same dollars used to buy that oil back into Treasuries and contracts for US military equipment and training.
Sweet deal.
Note that this is yet another secret world-shaping deal successfully kept out of the media for over four decades. Yes Virginia, conspiracies do happen. Secrets can be (and are routinely) kept by hundreds, even thousands, of people over long stretches of time.
Since that key deal was struck back in the early 1970s, the KSA has remained a steadfast supporter of the US and vice versa. In return, the US has never said anything substantive about KSA’s alleged involvement in 9/11 or its grotesque human and women’s rights violations. Not a peep.
Until recently.
Then Things Started To Break Down
In 2015, King Salman came to power. Things began to change pretty quickly, especially once he elevated his son Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to a position of greater power.
Among MBS's first acts was to directly involve KSA into the Yemen civil war, with both troops on the ground and aerial bombings. That war has killed thousands of civilians while creating a humanitarian crisis that includes the largest modern-day outbreak of cholera, which is decimating highly populated areas. The conflct, which is considered a 'proxy war' because Iran is backing the Houthi rebels while KSA is backing the Yemeni government, continues to this day.
Then in 2016, KSA threatened to dump its $750 billion in (stated) US assets in response to a bill in Congress that would have released sensitive information implicating Saudi Arabia's involvement in 9/11. Then-president Obama had to fly over there to smooth things out. It seems the job he did was insufficient; because KSA-US relations unraveled at an accelerating pace afterwards. Mission NOT accomplished, it would seem.
In 2017, KSA accused Qatar of nefarious acts and made such extraordinary demands that an outbreak of war nearly broke out over the dispute. The Qatari leadership later accused KSA of fomenting ‘regime change’, souring the situation further. Again, Iran backed the Qatar government, which turned this conflict into another proxy battle between the two main regional Arab superpowers.
In parallel with all this, KSA was also supporting the mercenaries (aka "rebels" in western press) who were seeking to overthrow Assad in Syria -- yet another proxy war between KSA and Iran. It's been an open secret that, during this conflict, KSA has been providing support to some seriously bad terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other supposed enemies of the US/NATO. (Again, the US has never said 'boo' about that, proving that US rhetoric against "terrorists" is a fickle construct of political convenience, not a moral matter.)
Once Russia entered the war on the side of Syria's legitimate government, the US and KSA (and Israel) lost their momentum. Their dreams of toppling Assad and turning Syria into another failed petro-state like they did with Iraq and Libya are not likely to pan out as hoped.
But rather than retreat to lick their wounds, KSA's King Salman and his son are proving to be a lot nimbler than their predecessors.
Rather than continue a losing battle in Syria, they've instead turned their energies and attention to dramatically reshaping KSA's internal power structures:
Saudi Arabia’s Saturday Night Massacre
For nearly a century, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by the elders of a royal family that now finds itself effectively controlled by a 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman. He helms the Defense Ministry, he has extravagant plans for economic development, and last week arranged for the arrest of some of the most powerful ministers and princes in the country.
A day before the arrests were announced, Houthi tribesmen in Yemen but allied with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh.
The Saudis claim the missile came from Iran and that its firing might be considered “an act of war.”
Saudi Arabia was created between the two world wars under British guidance. In the 1920s, a tribe known as the Sauds defeated the Hashemites, effectively annexing the exterior parts of Saudi Arabia they did not yet control. The United Kingdom recognized the Sauds’ claim shortly thereafter. But since then, the Saudi tribe has been torn by ambition, resentment and intrigue. The Saudi royal family has more in common with the Corleones than with a Norman Rockwell painting.
The direct attack was undoubtedly met with threats of a coup. Whether one was actually planned didn’t matter. Mohammed Bin Salman had to assume these threats were credible since so many interests were under attack. So he struck first, arresting princes and ex-minsters who constituted the Saudi elite. It was a dangerous gamble. A powerful opposition still exists, but he had no choice but to act. He could either strike as he did last Saturday night, or allow his enemies to choose the time and place of that attack. Nothing is secure yet, but with this strike, there is a chance he might have bought time. Any Saudi who would take on princes and clerics is obviously desperate, but he may well break the hold of the financial and religious elite.
(Source)
This 32 year-old prince, Mohammed bin Salman has struck first and deep, completely upending the internal power dynamics of Saudi Arabia.
He's taken on the political, financial and religious elites head on. For example, pushing through the decision to allow women to drive; a provocative move designed to send a clear message to the clerics who might oppose him. That message is: "I'm not fooling around here."
This is a classic example of how one goes about purging the opposition when either taking over a government after a coup, or implementing a big new strategy at a major corporation. You have to remove any possible opponents and then install your own loyalists. According the Rules for Rulers, you do this by diverting a portion of the flow of funds to your new backers while diminishing, imprisoning or killing all potential enemies.
So far, Mohammed bin Salman's action plan is par for the course. No surprises.
The above article from Stratfor (well worth reading in its entirety) continues with these interesting insights:
The Iranians have been doing well since the nuclear deal was signed in 2015. They have become the dominant political force in Iraq. Their support for the Bashar Assad regime in Syria may not have been enough to save him, but Iran was on what appears to be the winning side in the Syrian civil war. Hezbollah has been hurt by its participation in the war but is reviving, carrying Iranian influence in Lebanon at a time when Lebanon is in crisis after the resignation of its prime minister last week.
The Saudis, on the other hand, aren’t doing as well. The Saudi-built anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen has failed to break the Houthi-led opposition. And Iran has openly entered into an alliance with Qatar against the wishes of the Saudis and their ally, the United Arab Emirates.
Iran seems to sense the possibility of achieving a dream: destabilizing Saudi Arabia, ending its ability to support anti-Iranian forces, and breaking the power of the Sunni Wahhabis. Iran must look at the arrests in Saudi Arabia as a very bad move. And they may be. Mohammad bin Salman has backed the fundamentalists and the financial elite against the wall.
They are desperate, and now it is their turn to roll the dice. If they fall short, it could result in a civil war in Saudi Arabia. If Iran can hit Riyadh with missiles, the crown prince’s opponents could argue that the young prince is so busy with his plans that he isn’t paying attention to the real threat. For the Iranians, the best outcome is to have no one come out on top.
This would reconfigure the geopolitics of the Middle East, and since the U.S. is deeply involved there, it has decisions to make.
So given Yemen, Syria, and its recent domestic purges, Saudi Arabia is in turmoil. It's in a far weaker position than it was a short while ago.
This leaves the US in a far weaker regional position, too, at precisely the time when China and Russia are increasing their own presence (which we’ll get to next).
But first we have to discuss what might happen if a civil war were to engulf Saudi Arabia. The price of oil would undoubtedly spike. In turn, that would cripple the weaker countries, companies and households around the world that simply cannot afford a higher oil price. And there's a lot of them.
Financial markets would destabilize as long-suppressed volatility would explode higher, creating horrific losses across the board. That very few investors are mentally or financially prepared for such carnage is a massive understatement.
So..if you were Saudi Arabia, in need of helpful allies after being bogged down in an unwinnable war in Yemen, just defeated in a proxy war in Syria, and your longtime 'ally', the US, is busy pumping as much of its own oil as it can, what would you do?
Pivot To China
Given its situation, is it really any surprise that King Salman and his son have decided to pivot to China? In need of a new partner that would align better with their current and future interests, China is the obvious first choice.
So in March 2017, only a very short while after Obama's failed visit, a large and well-prepared KSA entourage accompanied King Salman to Beijing and inked tens of billions in new business deals:
China, Saudi Arabia eye $65 billion in deals as king visits
Mar 16, 2017
BEIJING (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s King Salman oversaw the signing of deals worth as much as $65 billion on the first day of a visit to Beijing on Thursday, as the world’s largest oil exporter looks to cement ties with the world’s second-largest economy.
The deals included a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between giant state oil firm Saudi Aramco and China North Industries Group Corp (Norinco), to look into building refining and chemical plants in China.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and Sinopec, which already jointly run a chemical complex in Tinajin, also agreed to develop petrochemical projects in both China and Saudi Arabia.
Salman told Xi he hoped China could play an even greater role in Middle East affairs, the ministry added.
Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said the memorandums of understanding and letters of intent were potentially worth about $65 billion, involving everything from energy to space.
(Source)
This was a very big deal in terms of Middle East geopolitics. It shook up many decades of established power, resulting in a shift away from dependence on America.
The Saudis arrived in China with such a huge crowd in tow that a reported 150 cooks had been brought along to just to feed everyone in the Saudi visitation party.
The resulting deals struck involved everything from energy to infrastructure to information technology to space. And this was just on the first visit. Quite often a brand new trade delegation event involves posturing and bluffing and feeling each other out; not deals being struck. So it’s clear that before the visit, well before, lots and lots of deals were being negotiated and terms agreed to so that the thick MOU files were ready to sign during the actual visit.
The scope and size of these business deals are eye catching, but the real clincher is King Salman's public statement expressing hope China will play "an even greater role in Middle East affairs."
That, right there, is the sound of the geopolitical axis-tilting. That public statement tells us everything we need to know about the sort of change the Salman dynasty intends to pursue.
So it should have surprised no one to hear that, in August this year, another $70 billion of new deals were announced between China and KSA. The fanfare extolled that Saudi-Sino relations had entered a new era, with “the agreements covering investment, trade, energy, postal service, communications, and media.”
This is a very rapid pace for such large deals. If KSA and China were dating, they’d be talking about moving in together already. They're clearly at the selecting furniture and carpet samples stage.
As for the US? It seems KSA isn't even returning its calls or texts at this point.
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet...
All of the above merely describes how we arrived at where things stand today.
But as mentioned, the power grab underway in KSA by Mohammed bin Salman is unfolding in real-time. Developments are happening hourly -- while writing this, the very high-profile Prince Bandar bin Sultan (recent head of Saudi Intelligence and former longtime ambassador to the US) has been arrested.
The trajectory of events is headed in a direction that may well end the arrangement that has served as the axis around which geopolitics has spun for the past 40 years. The Saudis want new partners, and are courting China hard.
China, for reasons we discuss in Part 2 of this report, has an existential need to supplant America as Saudi Arabia's most vital oil customer.
And both Saudi Arabia and China are inking an increasing number of strategic oil deals with Russia. Why? We get into that in Part 2, too -- but suffice it to say, in the fast-shifting world of KSA foreign policy, it's China and Russia 'in', US 'out'.
Maybe not all the way out, but the US clearly has lost a lot of ground with KSA over the past few years. My analysis is that by funding an insane amount of shale oil development, at a loss, and at any cost (such as to our biggest Mideast ally) the US has time and again displayed that our ‘friendship’ does not run very deep. In a world where loyalty counts, the US has proved a disloyal partner. Can China position itself to be perceived of as a better mate? When it comes to business, I believe the answer is ‘yes.’
In Part 2: The Oil Threat we couple these developments with China and Russia’s recent efforts to drop the dollar from trade, especially when purchasing oil, and clearly see the unfolding of the biggest new driver of the world’s financial, monetary and geopolitical arrangements in 50 years.
We also explain why, unless something very dramatically changes in either the supply or demand equation for oil, and soon, we can now put a timeline in place for when the great unraveling begins. Somewhere between the second half of 2018 and the end of 2019 oil will dramatically increase in price and that will shake the foundations of the global mountain of debt and its related underfunded liabilities. Think 9.0 on the financial Richter scale.
Let me be blunt - you have to have your preparations done before this happens. You really, really want to be a year early on this (at least). When it starts happening, the breakdown will progress faster than you can react.
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
I just do not know where this falls in my prioritization of doom.
Before Yellowstone, but after financial meltdown?
1... 2... 3... OK, lets all do the Saudi SWORD {Woar} Dance ...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/may/21/trump-joins-ceremo...
For those that missed out on membership in Skull and Bones or one of the other Secret Societies in US Ivy League Universities...
You can find an opportunity to join in the Saudi "War Dance"... Which Mar, you ask?
- A War for Expansion of Saudi & US Business Interests
- Or a Suckers War, where one side aids the start of the war and supports the war but exposes it's own weakness, destroys it's own power, projects it's logistics too far out, exposes it's best war assets
SaudiArabia just gave citizenship to a Ai robot
This is huge and totally flew under the radar, is their a connection to the massive power shift in Saudi Arabia? 1200 people arrested 300 billion dollars worth of assets seized / frozen so far as if a couple days ago and still presently climbing. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/zarastone/2017/11/07/e...
What Forbes fails to mention that their main partner is doing this, https://singularitynet.io so why would you wish to give your creation citizenship? And that creation most likely had a hand in creating this new way for AI'S to interact with each other and actively participate in a common market place? Very buggy shit. Now it gets even more buggy because of this guy, Dr. Ben Goetzel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel This guy graduated college at 19 with a degree in Quantitative Studies (whatever that is) and kept on going in graduate school with applied mathematics. Now he's important because he developed the AI robot first then this Ai trading / interaction platform was invented, did the Ai develope it's own system to interact with other ai's? Now this Dr is buddy buddy with Peter Thiel , https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel the ultra rich tech mogul gay Trump backer. Remember the picture of Trump and the Saudi King with their hands on that Glowing Orb? I don't think the Saudis are pivoting away from the US but rather away from the Federal Reserve and the banking cartel. These Same Guys ARE Behind Ethereum AND THIS Ai Trading PlatFormThey Gave A FREAKING ROBOT Citizenship , Then Purged THEIR GOVT, AND SIEZED hundreds of BILLIONS.
But how does this link to the Falklands war?
Which was about Vietnam.
They are a third world nation driven by a crazy tribal cult that only has hundreds of billions of dollars in US, UK and EU weaponry….
Now I hear they are getting S-400.s ……
What could possibly go wrong?
I hope nobody loses their heads over this little matter.
Saudi Arabia is TIRED of being wagged by the Israhellis via the US. http://wp.me/p4OZ4v-2g9
The reason that the world is moving towards China this fast, it’s because of Trump.
Trump is too radical, and that’s why these nations are running for the exit.
"Trump's policies are taking a whole bunch of countries that were already worried about America's commitment to lead and America's commitment to its alliances. China also wants to be seen now as promoting globalization, promoting free trade, particularly for countries in Asia that don't want to count on the U.S." — Ian Bremmer
Can I please buy some of Ian Bremmer's hallucinogens????
I could use a departure from reality, too.
departure from reality…………
Plenty of that around here. It makes people feel good, at least.
Wot about Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld, G.W.B., Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, Colin Powell, John Bolton, Condaleza Rice, Samantha Powers, Kagan, Susan Rice, Hilary Clinton, Clinton Foundation, noecons, McCain, Lindsey Graham, Phil Gramm, TBTF
Listen, it’s easy.
Eurasia is moving left. More trade. More openness. Paris agreement. And so on.
US is moving right, which is the opposite. More protectionism. More tariffs. Forget the environment.
Second, US consumes about 20% of the word’s resources and energy while having 5% of the world population.
So, if the world can eliminate ‘downsize’ the US, they will be able to kick the can a little longer.
And Trump, conservative ways of doing things, it’s helping the world accomplish that.
America needs the world more than the world needs America.
But try to tell that to a conservative or a left winger?
They can’t hear.
They won’t accept it.
Because they have been left behind. And this reality ‘of been left behind’ is a reality that they can’t face.
So these people have to step away from reality. Some want Armageddon ‘moral reason’ so they can kill the people that did this to them.
It’s a conundrum that there’s no easy way out, if any. That’s why I favor raising the taxes on the rich and government workers to reverse the disparity and the despair.
But you and I know that these are not going to happen, because the conservatives are against raising taxes, go figure!
Moron.
The obvious now having been said and out of the way, the US has not been pouring money into shale development. China has. Yes, US companies develop a field, but they immediately court Chinese investors to buy the future (exaggerated) product of those fields at a premium. Nowhere moreso than the Bakken shale wells.
The US drillers borrow the money to lease the land, drill, and establish provable production. Then, they court a Chinese investor to sell that proven production level out over 10 years, which is a good 7 years more than those welss will actually produce, and as most people know, a Bakken well's production declines almost immediately. So the drillers have a bank loan and a check from China... What to do? Pocket the check! Lease more land! Borrow more money! Drill more wells!
This is why the drama unfolding in the Middle East is a bit more worrisome, and a lot more hilarious, all at the same time.
Chris Martenson knows that. He interviewed people about it. This is common practice in the US.
At the housing bubble, I think I read it here, some loans were sold up to 27 times over, because the bankers knew that default was eminent. So, the bankers kept selling the same loan.
And the Europeans, especially Germany went all in.
So did the Japan in late 80’s and 90’s.
The loans originated at small local banks. Then said loans were on-sold to TBTF banks, which had internal 601spv's. These spv were carve outs in the law, which big banks agitated for and bribed their way to get.
601 spv's took mortgage debt instrument and tranched it. Another paper instrument called MBS spun out. This would be a hypothecation of a hypothecation.
There was also deception when the MBS were created, by putting low risk loans together with high risk loans, to then head fake investigators and potential investors.
MBS were sold as something to guarantee returns. Floods of bank capital likes to park overnight, and get some usury gravy. The flow of usury was then from homeowners paying their mortgages, and from there it flowed into holders of MBS.
After 2008, many mortgages were revealed as shaky, because they were hypothecated with fraud. There were Ninja loans, liar loans, etc. Why? Because the private banksters on-sold the mortgages right away, and hence on-sold the risk as well.
Without the inflows of usury to pay for MBS holder, the system started to collapse. There were even more bets placed on top of the bets. Since it was paper built on top of paper with large leverage ratios, then contagion spreads quickly also, in a multiplication (leverage) manner. None of this towering leverage and paper was based on fundamentals, it was all deception, it was pushing prices in housing with the "from nothing" creation of bank money.
Europeons and Germany still had vestigages of high trust societies at the time, and didn't understand the depth of America's ((Parasitism)). Germany especially with its public banking tradition was duped. Goldman Sachs called the German's "Muppets."
We know Trump's side:
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1cb179d674dd188b2bd6dd2253046d5eeacbf21c/...
Bear Stearns held the record with one mortgage sold into 42 separate trusts.
The Fedres owns all those trusts now bought at par.
I'm sure these countries just cannot get enough American leadership, I wish America would lead me too.
The stupidity and arrogance in his thinking is mindblowing.
Lol....! Dude....you've got a bigger ego than The Donald himself.
Where I live in the Uk we have a Saudi prince who has brought a horse racing farm along with other farmland. By all accounts he is a very good neighbour and a generally well respected man. He has even donated to the local church.
I'm guessing that he's sitting there sipping a fine wine tonight and thanking god he'd had the sense to move some of his cash out of the Kingdom and out of reach of the crazys. Now all he has to worry about are the progressives turning Britain into a third world country...
Grab your popcorn and watch to see whether the New Ottoman or New Persian Empire emerges the victor.
You seem to know the difference, a very basic one at that but the author does not.
"In 2017, KSA accused Qatar of nefarious acts and made such extraordinary demands that an outbreak of war nearly broke out over the dispute. The Qatari leadership later accused KSA of fomenting ‘regime change’, souring the situation further. Again, Iran backed the Qatar government, which turned this conflict into another proxy battle between the two main regional Arab superpowers."
Iran is Arab? I don't think so.
I tend to be skeptical when I see "breathless enthusiasm" touting the sky is falling geopolitically (which it always is ) and then the "Iran is Arabs" thing just killed it for me.
Oh well. I apologize for nit-picking and will get some popcorn.
Grimaldus
That aside, the article still pretty good.
The core issues for the American living standards are:
The price of oil
And the Petrodollar
Lose control of these two and American living standard is over.
The only alternative left is force —war.
"when I see "breathless enthusiasm"
Maybe "breathless euthanasia” would be good for them.
Neither, for Turkey to be the Ottoman empire it will have to rub up against Iran, and vice versa.
Meanwhile both have a religion running them that causes the stagnation of their economic and scientitfic development. I'd see a future where Turkey collapsed and the kurds carved out a new country more likely, with Russia and Europe more or less intact, Europe could be expanding even if it solved its muslim problem.
I'm sure BritBob will be along any moment now to inform us...
But how does this link to the Falklands war?
Yoar giving BritBob a ligit excuse to start his rant. But we all know he's autistic, so just be nice.
Yes, ZH has an article that says up to $800 Billion are at Stake in Seized Assets. Saudi Arabia is really KSA. KSA only exists because Royal Saudi Guards protect the King and Royal Family from the People.
So AI also becomes a protector of the Royal Family, a Military Type / National Security Asset / A Protector of the Government
Yes. Some good points you've got.
What can any Kingdom Do with a Trillion Dollars to Start a Revolution, Reform a Country, throw itself into an Information Revolution with Military Command Post par Excellence. What is the Next Revolution in Technology BTW... I guess it is AI.
Elycium or something from a Tom Clancy Novel. Women, Foreigners, Children don't have Citizenship or rights, slaves don't have rights. But Computers have rights.
KSA 20 Year & 50 Year Plan must include Military Strength, Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, Industrial Policy, Trade Policy,... and must reach into the Future, Long Term Strategic Planning. What kind of Culture? How many Classes of People in Elycium KSA? Modern Brahmins, Modern Military, Modern Clerics, Modern Merchants, and Slaves.
Robots to replace trusted assistants. Automated Border Defenses.
its probably where the first AI Robot City will be built.
The "essence" of everything regarding Globalized Neolithic Civilization is circumstances being controlled by applications of the methods of organized crime, while about exponentially advancing technologies are driving those circumstances to spin out of control.
@ Radical,
Technological ( Technocratic )Tyrannical Lawlessness.
once arabs run out of christians and jews to kill, they turn on each other. i say let it play out in their country, while US maintain non-intervention policy
So if they have elections, can the robots vote?
-- it's own weakness, destroys it's own power, projects it's logistics too far out, exposes it's best war assets--
or even, 'its its its'
Trump seemed out of synch. Maybe he really was not into it, or he is just to white to pick up their particular rhythm. Tillerson seemed to be pretty interested, and I think he was catching on.
If The Saudi Arabia Situation Doesn't Worry You, You're Not Paying Attention
My response: Good article, but not worried at all about Saudi Arabia. Why?
I am not worried because everything is proceeding along as planned.
My real worry is that MARXIST PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL Americans (if can call them Americans) fail to understand that they are the source of moral rot from within. I can't think of a single DEMOCRAT who is not doing their damnedest to destroy what is left of the republic. For example, the corruption and impeachment rhetoric is at a fever pitch. In addition, the MARXIST PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS continually spit in the face of GOD Almighty by their despicable CHARACTER, CONVERSATION and CONDUCT on a daily basis.
I am really tired of hearing or seeing these people put forth their perverted agenda in the public square.
May GOD have mercy on America.
As an America Firster, I second that compliment: super-informative and well written article on a foreign policy issue that I did not understand.
Too bad the MSM millionaire’s club prefers to focus on the all-important issue of juicy, 40-year-old sex scandals. Surprise!
The MSM show the same neglect when covering economic issues, like mass underemployment of non-welfare-and-non-child-tax-credit-welfare-fueled US citizens.
Like you say, article writer, the proliferation of individuals with an extremely low per capita income in many states—like $19,000 per year—and businesses on the edge will make any such meltdown catastrophic.
To quote someone that the oh-so-enlightened MSM mock, could the solution be “drill baby drill?”
Maybe not. I don’t know.
God knows, these so-called environmentalists are lying when claiming to be so concerned with climate change, when human consumption of natural
resources supposedly causes it according to them, and yet, every single one of the hypocrites favor loading on as many pay-per-birth monthly welfare freebies and $6,269 child tax credits to incentivize the creation of more humans to consume natural rwsources and to compete with robots for jobs.
Spawned by the oil crisis, maybe, the reset will occur before the robots increase the long-ignored underemployment rate—the crisis of part-time, temporary, low-wage and temp gigs—even more.
Yes good article. But there is a slant that's Deluded. For example the formulation "the legitimate government of Syria". Good grief dude. All of those dictatorships over there are morally illegitimate. Legitimacy under UN rules, the UN being a club of dictatorships, benefits thieving dictatorships immensely. "Syria" like "Iraq", is a preposterous notion.
Syria held elections in 2014. Assad won, unequivocally. And unsurprisingly, given the alternative: a bunch of headchopping Wahhabis.
It's interesting you chose to pick on Syria when there are outright dictatorships in the region like the oil "monarchies" being discussd in the same article.
Up here in North Los Angeles County the Syrians run a lot of liquor stores and I know some of them pretty well. They love Assad and would happily vote for him. When Obama was President, they didn't hide their total disgust for him (along with mine). They hated Obama with a passion. They weren't stupid. They know who created ISIS.
People loved Saddam too. The Assads are a miror image of "Iraq" under Saddam, in terms of using fear and brutality to suppress ethnic and sectarian hatreds that should have blown apart these fake jokes of nation wherein in unity is impossible.
You are a fuckwit. Go away and learn. Then come back and apologise.
You forgot that Assad was elected?
The Soviets had elections, as do the Iranians.
As does US&A. If voting mattered, goy wouldn't be allowed to do it.
Definitely an impressive piece of journalism. On point for the medium term as well I believe BUT it is worth noting that the consolidation of power has worked to maintain the status quo very effectively to date, as forecast by Christine Lagard a couple years ago.
The disconnect between reality and the threater of the damned is soon to become a chasm.
Im not worried, the nightmere will be over very soon.
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/good-news-from-god/what-is-gods...
Lol.
The wacky fun filled folks from The Watchtower Society.
Don't drink the Kool-aid.
+1 Right. Our domestic marxists are the fruit of the global Marxists, who were immensely successful with infiltrating and destroying American education. They now drive the demise of the Petrodollar (and all its structural parts, and massive implications). These ME developments show the end to the PD are near. Struck match, meet fuel...