Got to love trump saying that a fight breaking out seems like the most logical explanation. It was just a coincidence there was a guy there who was an expert in cutting up bodies.

1 on 15 is terrible odds if the 15 only have a bone saw. The 1 might have a gun.

The question: How many 5 year-olds armed with bone saws could Khashoggi take on at once?

Guys, guys. Don't worry. The moment pundits and really all of America has been waiting for has arrived.

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICAN OVERSIGHT IS HERE

THANK GOD



Spoiler alert: there is no ambassador to Saudi Arabia right now, Trump gave that responsibility to Jared lol

This ****ing country, can't believe there were sentiment people ITT who were like well MAYBE Congress will step in? The entirety of the Republican Congressional caucus are all half wit grifters themselves, they don't have a ****ing clue about anything, there will be no oversight.

The ol' McKinsey efficiency.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/u...n-twitter.html

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1053647215409938432

Calling out Trump for lying is like saying "checkmate!" at the poker table. You and your opponents are playing completely different games.

I would like to think that Pompeo playing along is an indication that our government has deemed that appearing to accept their explanation as plausible for the time being, is tactically correct even though they, including Trump, not only disbelieve it, but also fully expect to denounce that explanation in the near future. There is nothing in history that is fully analogous to this situation and I would expect that even many deplorables don't want Trump to go easy on them.

In other words I think that Trump's semi acceptance of their story is a complete, soon to be revealed, scam, rather than an attempt to to try to diffuse the situation. But only about 70% sure.

David.

fyp

=()

What, as a practical matter, can be done about all of this? Cancel the arms deal? That seems like a good idea bec it's unlikely that any other country that has essentially the same weapons will sell to them if the U.S. won't but IDK how much that hurts SA in the short term. Economic sanctions such as locking them out of the international banking system and making it tough to sell their oil? That ought to shoot the price of oil up to a number that no one can accept.

So, SA killed someone of some importance, got caught nearly red-handed and what can we effectively do about it?

1. Stop supporting their awful war in Yemen.
2. Arms embargo
3. Magnitsky sanctions on regime figures involved in the murder

What do I win?

You win the prize for naming the things that the Trump administration will never do.

Every time I see a Sklansky post I legit give him the benefit of the doubt before reading it and every time he lets me down.

It doesn't matter if anyone supports their Yemen adventure bec they will never stop. IDK who is the House of Saud's worst enemy - Iran or their own population - but prior to GWB's disastrous mistake at least they only had to contend w/ a Shiite regime to the East. Now there's a Shiite regime to the North and if the Houthis win there will be another to the South. That scenario SA can not tolerate and they will bomb every school bus and commit every atrocity there is to prevent it no matter what anyone says.

Arms embargo, fine, but we don't know how desperate they are to re-load at this time and, sooner or later, someone is going to want the money.

And how is anyone going to prove who's guilty? Anyone we sanction is based on supposition even though it's a reasonable supposition. And, despite SA's apparent need for the income they can turn off the spigot and the world economy goes into the tank.

This is a ****-show of the first order. They've already floated the 'rouge killers' idea and floated a fall-guy as I linked above. What's going to have to happen is that we get force-fed something that no one believes and we will have to swallow it.

You win the responsible approach award, though. OTOH, it won't happen.

Howard Beale, ladies and gentlemen.

What in the damn hell is this? You've got proof? The Turks say they have proof of a murder, as yet unrevealed, and you know for certain who's behind it? The Turks don't say they know who's behind it but you do for sure?

Trolly McTrollson, ladies and gentlemen.

I mean, we don't exactly have to call Scotland yard to figure out who did this.

You mean who's behind a murder in a Saudi consulate in which 15 people including Saudi special forces flew into Turkey, met the person at the consulate, murdered him, and then flew out of Turkey and in which the offical channels gave contradicting stories and there's still no body?

That's right but it's still not proof. And there is a very good reason our dear leaders are scared to death of the fall-out and don't know wtf to do. Certainly some call for what bobman listed but that's not what we are going to get w/ Trump as president. We are going to get fed some complete BS, along w/ the character assassination of the victim assassinated (which is some kind of irony right there) and there will be a dog and pony show which no one will believe and that's going to be that.

Oh they have a body.

It's such a weird hill to climb up on.

Look, there's no great leap needed to know who's responsible as far as I'm concerned but there's also wiggle room. MBS can just come out w/: 'Do you really think I'm that stupid? We have found the admittedly highly placed person who actually arranged this for reasons of his own and everyone involved will be dealt with.' And everyone better hope that they aren't on his 'well, we don't really need him all that much' list.