So many story lines.
Prior to this Washington Post / CIA story, President Trump had "unlimited" leverage over the Prince.
With the release of the story, the president no longer has "unlimited" leverage over the Prince. In fact, the president may now have more challenges; certainly, Saudi Arabia has a lot with which to deal. It's hard for me to believe that any responsible business man in the United States would want to be seen with the man pictured above.
One wonders why the US, Britain, and the EU are not talking sanctions on Saudi Arabia. Ah, yes, realpolitik.
I haven't read the Washington Post story; the real story is at what level in the administration was this story released to the Washington Post. Of course, the sources will remain anonymous, but it's hard for me to believe that the president did not give approval. Could be wrong. It will be interesting to see how Scott Adams addresses this. The story was just released; it's late in the evening, so it may be awhile before Scott Adams' next podcast.
Okay, now I've read the story. Nothing new there except that we now know about a phone call between the Saudi ambassador to the United States (who just happens to be a brother of the prince).
Also, very, very noteworthy: this whole story really doesn't say much that we didn't already know or suspect, but look at the number of reporters it took to write this really quite simple story: three.
It shouldn't take three reporters to write such a non-story -- except that it gives the story gravitas, credibility. With this number of reporters, it tells me they have at least two, perhaps three sources, that corroborate the CIA angle. In addition, like Woodward and Bernstein there were multiple reporters connecting dots that one reporter might not have been able to do by herself.
But I suppose at the end of the day, if the US, Britain, France, Germany do not hold the Prince accountable, it will speak volumes about their leaders' sense of morality. Let's see which leader speaks out on this first.
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Speaking of Journalists
I continue to read the excerpts in Tom Wolfe's The New Journalism. Most recently I read the excerpt from HST's Hell's Angels. I had forgotten how really good Hunter's writing is/was.
And speaking of Hell's Angels, I happened to catch one of the "Billy Jack" movies the other night on TCM. An incredibly awful movie but a huge cult following.
One thing leads to another.
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Wow, Some Music Is Needed -- The Carnival Is Over
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Apparently Two Of The Contests Are Finally Over
It's my understanding that the US Senate is still 53 - 47. Don't know if that will change.
Mississippi still has a runoff election. The Republican should win by 20.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Much appreciated.
DeleteOn another note, glad to see folks still reading about the Bakken after all these years.