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Silicon Valley's Saudi Arabia Problem (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Somewhere in the United States, someone is getting into an Uber en route to a WeWork co-working space. Their dog is with a walker whom they hired through the app Wag. They will eat a lunch delivered by DoorDash, while participating in several chat conversations on Slack. And, for all of it, they have an unlikely benefactor to thank: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Long before the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi vanished, the kingdom has sought influence in the West -- perhaps intended, in part, to make us forget what it is. A medieval theocracy that still beheads by sword, doubling as a modern nation with malls (including a planned mall offering indoor skiing), Saudi Arabia has been called "an ISIS that made it." Remarkably, the country has avoided pariah status in the United States thanks to our thirst for oil, Riyadh's carefully cultivated ties with Washington, its big arms purchases, and the two countries' shared interest in counterterrorism. But lately the Saudis have been growing their circle of American enablers, pouring billions into Silicon Valley technology companies.
While an earlier generation of Saudi leaders, like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, invested billions of dollars in blue-chip companies in the United States, the kingdom's new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has shifted Saudi Arabia's investment attention from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has become one of Silicon Valley's biggest swinging checkbooks, working mostly through a $100 billion fund raised by SoftBank (a Japanese company), which has swashbuckled its way through the technology industry, often taking multibillion-dollar stakes in promising companies. The Public Investment Fund put $45 billion into SoftBank's first Vision Fund, and Bloomberg recently reported that the Saudi fund would invest another $45 billion into SoftBank's second Vision Fund. SoftBank, with the help of that Saudi money, is now said to be the largest shareholder in Uber. It has also put significant money into a long list of start-ups that includes Wag, DoorDash, WeWork, Plenty, Cruise, Katerra, Nvidia and Slack. As the world fills up car tanks with gas and climate change worsens, Saudi Arabia reaps enormous profits -- and some of that money shows up in the bank accounts of fast-growing companies that love to talk about "making the world a better place."
While an earlier generation of Saudi leaders, like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, invested billions of dollars in blue-chip companies in the United States, the kingdom's new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has shifted Saudi Arabia's investment attention from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has become one of Silicon Valley's biggest swinging checkbooks, working mostly through a $100 billion fund raised by SoftBank (a Japanese company), which has swashbuckled its way through the technology industry, often taking multibillion-dollar stakes in promising companies. The Public Investment Fund put $45 billion into SoftBank's first Vision Fund, and Bloomberg recently reported that the Saudi fund would invest another $45 billion into SoftBank's second Vision Fund. SoftBank, with the help of that Saudi money, is now said to be the largest shareholder in Uber. It has also put significant money into a long list of start-ups that includes Wag, DoorDash, WeWork, Plenty, Cruise, Katerra, Nvidia and Slack. As the world fills up car tanks with gas and climate change worsens, Saudi Arabia reaps enormous profits -- and some of that money shows up in the bank accounts of fast-growing companies that love to talk about "making the world a better place."
Problem solved.
Next problem?
I don't respond to AC's.
Lots of talk, followed by some back room dealing. A compromise will be reached whereas the US and Europe can take some token action that Saudi Arabia will make strident statements against and will make some token responding gesture - neither of which will substantively impact each other.
The West is just too dependent on Saudi oil... plus they’re considered friendly to western interests. No one will have the will to really punish them.
#DeleteChrome
take a look at how much influence the Saudis have bought in mainstream media outlets and academia. There's a reason the former will lie through their teeth about Israel even as Hamas claims armed combatants and live video shows armed terrorists with guns and high explosives, and latter is increasingly full of people who will openly violently attack jewish students just for existing while heaping praise on arab colonialism.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
A medieval theocracy that still beheads by sword
So the US is a medieval theocracy that murders with volts?
I believe that there are three different claims being made in the statement:
Saudi Arabia is a theocracy
Saudi Arabia is medieval
Saudi Arabia uses "beheading by sword" as a method of capital punishment
I don't see a claim that "beheading by sword" makes Saudi Arabia a medieval theocracy, so it does not logically follow that the United States would be a medieval theocracy that "murders with volts".
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Saudi_Arabia Saudi Arabia is a theocracy. Depending upon one's point of view, there are aspects of Saudi Arabian society that appear to not have progressed beyond what Europe practiced in the European medieval period. Saudi Arabia does use beheading as a method of capital punishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Saudi_Arabia.
So the claim that "Saudi Arabia is a medieval theocracy that still beheads by sword" seems to me to be based on a set of independent facts. I don't see evidence of a claim that the manner of execution determines whether a nation-state is a medieval theocracy.
To get the Saddam treatment.
SA always had the same laws as the IS. Yet they were America's best friend in the region.
Because their leaders obeyed the USA.
Who here remembers when Saddam was America's best friend aka henchman in the region?
Suddenly he became "the new Hitler" literally over night. Only beause he stopped obeying, and attacked Quwait instead of Iran as he was told to, because he was tired of losing. That is literally all that changed. He already was an asshole before.
And why did he keep losing? Because Iran had the third or fourth largest military in the world.
And why was that?
Because Iran got the same treament before!
Does anyone remember, when *Iran* was the USA's best friend in the region? "As a stronghold against communism." (As if the Russian dictatorship wasn't a big enough enemy of communism themselves. Stretching out the "transition phase" ad infinitum.)
Then, the Iranians suffered so much under their US puppet dictator, that they fell for religion, and in their desperation, chose a religious nutjob. Which would be like the USA having a literal revolution, to install the WBC, just to get rid of Trump.
Bam, they were the new Hitlers.
Why do you think with recently taking Russia out lf the convenieg enemy figure closet again, suddenly they try to get along with Iran again, just when a new US-friendly leader jumps out of nowhere.
So now it's Saudi Arabia's turn. To be turned back into a desert wasteland.
Did they get too cocky? Or is it simply that China bough the oil instead and became their new oil best buddies, and now that the USA got more oil-independent, the old SA shit does not fly anymore?
Oh well... at least it will be the the USA's very first actual blow against terrorism. ;)
Which will come back to bite them, once the Russia scarecrow is all used up again, and they realize, that idiot TrumpObamaBush emptied the closet.
This isn't really news for those who pay attention.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
that the accusation of whataboutism is itself a form of tu quoque fallacy, as it dismisses criticisms of one's own behavior to focus instead on the actions of another, thus creating a double standard. Those who use whataboutism are not necessarily engaging in an empty or cynical deflection of responsibility: whataboutism can be a useful tool to expose contradictions, double standards, and hypocrisy.[126][127]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
They are also a 5% owner of Tesla, and apparently Elon Musk has discussed further investment with them and also selling the company to them. I guess he likes those guys.
Comparing the US judicial system to the SA Sharia system is like comparing apples to nuclear warheads. Your false equivalency is a prime example of the type of bullshit that has empowered the mob rule. And the mob seems incapable of understanding that their mindless sloganeering, over the top hyperbole, and general idiocy will draw a response just as mindless by those on the other side. If you are incapable of being honest in your criticisms then you would be better off shutting the hell up.
*sigh* And this in a time when one doesn't even have to go outside to get information and learn things.
USA have a variant of representative democracy where people elect leaders which in term can elect others (current example: supreme court judges). And that is one type of democracy. You may be thinking of direct democracy where people directly vote for different alternatives, or more likely of some variant of an anarchy (the political use of the word).
But really spend some hours, search and learn. It's interesting.
We are neither medieval or a theocracy.
If you aren't, it's not for a lack of desire by certain influential portions of the population.
Ezekiel 23:20
The latter is mob rule and tyranny of the majority.
Meanwhile here we are suffering tyranny of the minority, ala Trump.
It is not just Trump and his merry band of tax cheats. The tyranny is supported hook, line, and sold soul by the Evangelicals. They are the U.S.'s Taliban. They are just as mindlessly religious in their intolerance and given half a chance, they'd be happy to lock up anyone who doesn't parrot their beliefs. The U.S. gets all funky over the Chinese treatment of the Uighurs, but where is the outrage from the Evangelicals over the U.S.'s tent camp for children of illegal aliens? Where is the outrage over separating families? Where is the Evangelical push to fund aid and development programs for the countries in C. America that are the source of these migrants?
Just where are the Evangelicals? Where is their Christian faith now that they cannot be Christians given how badly their souls have been blackened by supporting Trump?
Although you're marked troll at this point, I stand with you.
The evangelicals want to push their concept of morality on the US at every turn. They ignore so much to get ostensible anti-abortionists like Kavanaugh onto the SCOTUS, pathological narcissists for President, and just genuine haters at so many political points that I find them as gruesome as the Saudis in many areas. The anti-LGBT fundings (Thank you, LatterDayDudes), support for anti-healthcare, 1%er tax cuts, it's truly appalling. Are these the Pharisees or the Christians? Tough to tell.
The Saudis, like the 1%ers, pay people off. Launder their ill-gotten gain in tech. Ignore the inevitable climate change caused by manmade sources. Then they pat themselves on the back, believing themselves the hand of God, which they are not.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Can you even imagine America executing a Trump or Clinton?
Prior to 10 to 15 years ago, no. But at the rate things have been going, I can see it happening in the next 5 to 10 years. The wing nuts have been getting ever crazier and have gotten very efficient at stirring up more people than I would have ever thought possible. The media has also gotten very good at giving the masses just enough information to scare the shit out of them, but not enough to make an informed decision. Even the weather channel hypes anything they can.
Saudi Arabia uses Sharia Law, and the "jury" consists of educated clerics who are far less likely to be sway by appeals to emotion. Several members of the royal family have been beheaded.
As long as you don't mind issues of religion/honor/etc having a much higher priority than whether the accused is in fact guilty of the charge, yeah it's great.
Why do so many people think that if something is bad, anything different must be inherently better? It's like we've collectively forgotten that something bad can always be made even worse.