{"id":37507,"date":"2022-10-07T20:40:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-08T01:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=37507"},"modified":"2022-10-07T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T01:40:57","slug":"a-little-hardball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2022\/10\/07\/a-little-hardball\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Hardball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wonder if the royal family of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s a bit disconcerted:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">From unanswered questions about 9\/11 &amp; the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, to conspiring w\/ Putin to punish the US w\/ higher oil prices, the royal Saudi family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation. It\u2019s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without their alliance.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenatorDurbin\/status\/1578024093118787585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Royal_Standard_of_Kingdom_of_Saudi_Arabia.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-37509 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Royal_Standard_of_Kingdom_of_Saudi_Arabia.jpg?resize=166%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Royal_Standard_of_Kingdom_of_Saudi_Arabia.jpg?w=225&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Royal_Standard_of_Kingdom_of_Saudi_Arabia.jpg?resize=148%2C150&amp;ssl=1 148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/a>Given the military inadequacies of Russia, vividly demonstrated in <em>Putin&#8217;s War<\/em>, I know that, if I were a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_of_Saud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>House of Saud<\/strong><\/a>, I&#8217;d be wondering if <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mohammed_bin_Salman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mohammed bin Salman<\/a> (MBS), de facto ruler and heir apparent to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was leading the family into a disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Not that I think any of them are capable of taking MBS out. MBS has proven to be a superior practicioner of royal intrigue, royal politics, and he&#8217;s probably got the family firmly under his thumb.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-37508 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=327%2C245&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"327\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PXL_20220911_200247712.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px\" \/><\/a>But it still makes him a target. From royal family infighting, to the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi of <em><strong>WaPo<\/strong><\/em> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mohammed_bin_Salman#Interventions_in_Syria_and_Yemen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Yemen War<\/em><\/a>, which has been spectacularly unsuccessful, to attempting to excessively profit on the American addiction to fossil fuels in the face of President Biden, he&#8217;s made a number of enemies. Having Durbin make explicit that the best weaponry available for import into the kingdom may suddenly be withheld is not only an existential threat, it&#8217;s also a blow to MBS&#8217; prestige. And there&#8217;s no guarantee that China will come riding to his rescue &#8211; or that their weaponry is any better than Russia&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Messing with the <strong>Biden Administration<\/strong>, which has handled <em>Putin&#8217;s War<\/em> about as well as we could have hoped, is more or less an unforced error that really speaks to his long-term survival odds falling.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know how poorly <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Salman_of_Saudi_Arabia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">King Salman<\/a> is doing, and if his orders would be followed if he chose to have MBS removed from the position of Crown Prince. The <em><strong>Independent<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/saudi-arabia-power-struggle-between-king-salman-and-mohammed-bin-salman-could-bring-down-the-monarchy-a6706801.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> he had Alzheimer&#8217;s back in 2015, but whether that&#8217;s accurate, I don&#8217;t know. If he does have Alzheimer&#8217;s then he may be nothing more than a figurehead, as rumors suggest.<\/p>\n<p>The future for Saudi Arabia and <strong>OPEC<\/strong> is hard to predict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wonder if the royal family of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s a bit disconcerted: From unanswered questions about 9\/11 &amp; the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, to conspiring w\/ Putin to punish the US w\/ higher oil prices, the royal Saudi family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation. It\u2019s time \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2022\/10\/07\/a-little-hardball\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37511,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37507\/revisions\/37511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}