Chitchat What happened in Saudi Arabia in the last 3 days ?

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.41.14 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.41.30 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.41.41 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.41.52 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.42.03 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.42.13 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.45.00 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.47.35 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.47.46 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 9.47.54 AM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

“The competition for power and influence in today’s Middle East has changed significantly,“ he said, “and the Saudis are playing catch-up, with very mixed results.”

On Nov. 3, Mr. Hariri met with a senior Iranian official, Ali Akbar Velayati, who then praised Iran’s cooperation with Lebanon. That may have been the last straw for the Saudis.

In Lebanon, Western diplomats and Lebanese officials said, the Saudis expected the resignation would be taken at face value and bring about a mass outpouring of popular support from Hezbollah’s opponents. Instead, Lebanon reacted with mass suspicion.

Meanwhile, the Saudi prince, apparently undaunted by international concerns, summoned yet another leader, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and issued instructions on Palestinian politics.

Concerns were high for several reasons. The Saudi recommendations to Mr. Abbas could destabilize the fractious Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, a senior Lebanese official said. Separately, a Lebanese ally of the Saudis had urged jihadist factions in one Palestinian camp to form a “Sunni resistance” militia to counter Hezbollah — an idea so dangerous that the jihadists themselves refused, Lebanese and Palestinian officials and a Western diplomat said.

That demand proved, the Western and Arab diplomats said, that the prince was not well-informed on Yemen, sometimes called “Riyadh’s Vietnam.” Hezbollah, a Western diplomat said, had only about 50 fighters in Yemen, with Iran playing a much larger role in training and aiding the Houthis.

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.58.22 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.58.32 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.58.39 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.58.46 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.58.55 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.59.06 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.59.14 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.59.23 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.59.53 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.59.59 AM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.47.04 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.47.12 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.47.21 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.47.29 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.27.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.27.15 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.27.31 PM.png

In December 2000, the Fifth Committee voted to lower the ceiling rate from 25% to 22% for the Regular Budget. The US had promised to pay its longstanding debt to the UN in exchange for lower assessments. As of December 31, 2010, the US owed $736 million (or 80% of all member states debt) to the UN Regular Budget.

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/res/70/245

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.52.22 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.52.35 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.52.43 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 1.52.50 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

gatehousethetinkertailor said:
View attachment 36272 View attachment 36273

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.39.51 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.38.01 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.38.09 PM.png

The plan looks sexy and victorious, but there’s one huge problem. Badass Israel controls all of Jerusalem, not East Jerusalem or West Jerusalem, after the East was seized as a result of Six-Day War in June 1967.

Since 1967 – that’s 50 years ago – some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam came under Israeli rule. What the half-past-six Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein hasn’t figured out yet is that Erdogan’s declaration of setting up Turkey Embassy in East Jerusalem was merely a symbolic gesture, a gimmick to the 1.8-billion Muslims.
It’s a wishful, even moronic, thinking for Hishammuddun believing that he could simply transport bricks and cements into East Jerusalem and start building Malaysia Embassy there. Sure, after Malaysia’s declaration of war against the Jews, the dumb Israeli would be watching with popcorn and Coke while enemy contractors and workers conduct construction works in the city (*grin*).
Assuming Israel agrees to let Malaysia setting up an embassy in East Jerusalem, what does Prime Minister Najib Razak plans to do with it? Currently, Malaysian passport holders are not allowed to visit Israel, except for Christians for religious purposes. But with a new embassy in East Jerusalem, indirectly Malaysia recognizes Israel, something which perhaps Hishammuddin doesn’t realize.

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.41.43 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.41.57 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.42.09 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.42.20 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.42.30 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.52.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.52.14 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.52.23 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.52.35 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.57.02 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.55.44 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.56.04 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.56.14 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.56.23 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.56.32 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 7.56.42 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.40.10 PM.png

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/podcasts/cipher-brief-daily-podcast-2

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.47.00 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.45.48 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.45.57 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 10.46.06 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.23.13 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.23.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.23.42 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.23.51 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.03 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.12 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.37 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.47 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

cont'd

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.24.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.06 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.17 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.27 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.40 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.47 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.25.54 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.26.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.26.20 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.26.29 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

cont'd

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.26.40 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.26.49 PM.png

http://en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il/?cmd=publication.7&act=read&id=652#.WkEY4EuYMUF

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.41.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.42.08 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.42.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.42.29 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.42.47 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.43.21 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.43.33 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

cont'd

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.44.40 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.44.47 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.44.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.45.06 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.45.15 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.45.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-25 at 11.45.38 PM.png

gatehousethetinkertailor · Dec 25, 2017

They believe that Donald Trump is God's instrument to move us closer to the Rapture, the Judgment, and the End. Because to them, that's actually the beginning -- the beginning of their reward and heavenly bliss.

Trump is increasingly being compared by evangelicals – and Jews on the religious right – to Persia’s King Cyrus II, also known as Cyrus the Great. "Trump in his generation, as Cyrus in his", tweeted Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked**. The bolder have gone so far as to suggest that Trump doesn’t just merely resemble the Persian king, he’s Cyrus reincarnated.

Since the Jerusalem declaration, her social media feed has been buzzing with the issue of whether Trump might even be the reincarnation of Cyrus.

The similarities were striking, she said. “There are a lot of people who hate [Trump], but, then you can imagine that Cyrus when he was going to let the Jewish people go back to Jerusalem and build the Jewish Temple must have had a lot of enemies as well who didn’t want to see this done,” she said.

**