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icantfindaname posted:yeah but it's worse because it's the ME and the undermining of liberal democracy has turned the entire region into a hellscape warzone. like africa is already a shithole, it doesn't matter if the US supports a lovely dictator there. this is literally the reason why the ME is hosed up I wonder what D&D's opinion on US support for Israel, the Middle East's sole liberal democracy, is.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:09 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:10 |
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Well its either support their lovely dictatorship or brutally murder them all because one way or another we need their oil.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:09 |
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icantfindaname posted:yeah but it's worse because it's the ME and the undermining of liberal democracy has turned the entire region into a hellscape warzone. like africa is already a shithole, it doesn't matter if the US supports a lovely dictator there. this is literally the reason why the ME is hosed up That said, plenty other regional actors have their own part to play. Turkey, Iran and Israel at least have remained independent of Saudi influence, and have accomplished plenty of poo poo on their own. That said, I don't think the US gets a free pass as much as some people really want it to, even if US policy is so often weirdly counterproductive (look at Iranian influence in Iraq after 2003). If the Saudis fell at this point, I don't know if it would fix anything either, and would most likely enter up some type of uber-Syria complete with Shia minority and border spillage.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:10 |
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Fojar38 posted:I wonder what D&D's opinion on US support for Israel, the Middle East's sole liberal democracy, is. okay, amend my post to 'liberal democracies not based on apartheid and ethnic cleansing' the US isn't the only reason the ME is hosed up, but doing things like unconditionally supporting Israel and the Saudis is absolutely an aggravating factor
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:27 |
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icantfindaname posted:'liberal democracies not based on apartheid and ethnic cleansing' lol
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:36 |
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A Pale Horse posted:Well its either support their lovely dictatorship or brutally murder them all because one way or another we need their oil. The US is actually the world's largest oil producer so I dunno why this tired meme keeps getting posted like it's some kind of epic burn
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:54 |
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-Troika- posted:The US is actually the world's largest oil producer so I dunno why this tired meme keeps getting posted like it's some kind of epic burn the 70s oil embargo was one of the key formative moments for neocons, and securing America's interests abroad (AKA oil) through whatever sociopathic means necessary then became their reason for existing. it's absolutely the basis of our relationship with them
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:56 |
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Condiv posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ItJe2Incs Seems like a pretty ok way to kill myself, Thanks.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:56 |
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Why would you behead first and then crucify? Why not crucify him for a day or two and then finish it off with a beheading?
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 20:59 |
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icantfindaname posted:the 70s oil embargo was one of the key formative moments for neocons, and securing America's interests abroad (AKA oil) through whatever sociopathic means necessary then became their reason for existing. it's absolutely the basis of our relationship with them The US got about 13% of it's oil imports from Saudi Arabia last year, which is a lot less than we get from, say, Canada. And imports have been decreasing over the past 15 years or so, too, which is why the Saudis are so scared of shale oil. I'm pretty sure that if the US one day decided to tell the Saudis to suck it, we could make it stick without ruining our economy. They need us a lot more than we need them.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:07 |
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-Troika- posted:The US got about 13% of it's oil imports from Saudi Arabia last year, which is a lot less than we get from, say, Canada. And imports have been decreasing over the past 15 years or so, too, which is why the Saudis are so scared of shale oil. It is part of the reason why the Saudis have kept production higher amidst falling prices, they are hoping to strangle the US shale industry in order to reassert their export strategy. They are doing a fairly good job so far (and the Chinese economy is unintentionally helping them out as well).
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:11 |
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NoEyedSquareGuy posted:Why would you behead first and then crucify? Why not crucify him for a day or two and then finish it off with a beheading? It's an intentional show of disrespect and brutality
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:13 |
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Its anecdotal, but i heard the story from a saudi guy, and usually beheading is highly likely to fail severing the head on the first blow, because the executioner uses a sword instead of something like a guillotine and that relies on having enough momentum and force to deal a blow like that.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:19 |
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I'd pick blowing from the gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowing_from_a_gun "The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen."
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:20 |
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Tezzor posted:It's an intentional show of disrespect and brutality Well obviously, but I feel like they're getting the order of operations wrong if they're going for max brutality. Beheading followed by crucifixion might be more disrespectful though. Depends what they're going for I guess.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 21:21 |
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Ardennes posted:It is part of the reason why the Saudis have kept production higher amidst falling prices, they are hoping to strangle the US shale industry in order to reassert their export strategy. They are doing a fairly good job so far (and the Chinese economy is unintentionally helping them out as well). Unless they're working on fusion reactors that can fit under the hood they can only hope to stall the shale industry. Demand for oil isn't going to magically disappear unless something huge happens like the US defaulting or a magical energy device gets built.
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# ? Sep 28, 2015 22:24 |
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A Winner is Jew posted:Unless they're working on fusion reactors that can fit under the hood they can only hope to stall the shale industry. Demand for oil isn't going to magically disappear unless something huge happens like the US defaulting or a magical energy device gets built. Low prices are already have a pretty disasterous effect on the industry, maybe not enough to kill but certainly enough to slow development and maybe even cap more marginal wells. Ardennes fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Sep 28, 2015 |
# ? Sep 28, 2015 22:34 |
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Can't wait until the oil money runs dry and it becomes Mad Max over there.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 07:57 |
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You guys realize that Saudi Aramco can produce a barrel of oil for like 8 dollars and can keep production up until the planet kills us, right?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 09:14 |
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Bastard Tetris posted:You guys realize that Saudi Aramco can produce a barrel of oil for like 8 dollars and can keep production up until the planet kills us, right? Can you explain why?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 09:41 |
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drilldo squirt posted:Can you explain why? Yeah, they have an absolute fuckton of oil that's extremely easy to access and are a state-owned oil company.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 10:27 |
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The vast majority of their reserves are also highly concentrated into just 8 fields or so. But 8 / barrel still seems very low, I think in order to balance the books they need it a bit higher than that.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 10:46 |
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It's now "Kevin Bacon" to point out that the U.S. hypocritically enables Saudi brutality. It's tumblr as well I suspect.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 10:56 |
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Condiv posted:they support this poo poo? Let's get real for a second. What politician in Washington with an ounce of scruples or sense of governance do you think actually wants to be allies with Saudi Arabia? With an economy like ours that relies heavily on oil, and as a nation that props up everyone else at the moment, what are we supposed to do about Saudi Arabia being a backwards shithole? Complain about it? Sanction it? Invade it? I remember the last time the administration complained about the Saudi's government making GBS threads on their people: Nothing happened. Until we can get away from oil they got us by the balls. But until then we have to grit our teeth. quote:Can't wait until the oil money runs dry and it becomes Mad Max over there. Pretty much
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 11:15 |
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Main Paineframe posted:I wouldn't say it's specifically the undermining of democracy so much as general Western meddling in Middle Eastern affairs. West bad, brutal traditionalism good, got it.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 11:22 |
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Smudgie Buggler posted:West bad, brutal traditionalism good, got it. Apparently the West is the only place in the world that buys oil or produces weapons. If we stopped buying oil and sell weapons the Saudis would have no choice but to stop being terrible.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 11:31 |
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How many years worth of reserves do they have left anyway? 20? 30? 50?* *assuming production stays relatively stable.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 12:03 |
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Bastard Tetris posted:You guys realize that Saudi Aramco can produce a barrel of oil for like 8 dollars and can keep production up until the planet kills us, right? Latest estimates is that the Saudi state itself needs Brent at $100-110 to break even, Aramco can pump the very cheaply but their entire country is based around the assumption of far more enormous profits. The Saudis have money stashed away to pay for their expenses for a while, but there is growing worry they are burning through them too quickly and building too much debt. As for the US and the Saudis, every toxic relationship has a reason for existing in the first place. The question is how much you apply that logic to other toxic relationships.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 12:08 |
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Tezzor posted:The point of underlining the hideousness of our close allies is to demonstrate that US foreign policy is actually not based in following any higher principles, which unfortunately many in this country still believe, and many in this forum claim to not believe until they see some atrocity on the news and start demanding a new war america does what is convenient for america in other news, water is wet
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 12:32 |
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Nelson Mandingo posted:Let's get real for a second. What politician in Washington with an ounce of scruples or sense of governance do you think actually wants to be allies with Saudi Arabia? With an economy like ours that relies heavily on oil, and as a nation that props up everyone else at the moment, what are we supposed to do about Saudi Arabia being a backwards shithole? Complain about it? Sanction it? Invade it? I remember the last time the administration complained about the Saudi's government making GBS threads on their people: Nothing happened. Venezuela has lots of oil too, but that did not result in neocon foriegn policy giving it top-level ally status. SA is a special case that really is at the center of everything that's wrong about American policy in the ME
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 16:17 |
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icantfindaname posted:Venezuela has lots of oil too, but that did not result in neocon foriegn policy giving it top-level ally status. SA is a special case that really is at the center of everything that's wrong about American policy in the ME What do you think we should do about Saudi Arabia then?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 16:43 |
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Ardennes posted:Latest estimates is that the Saudi state itself needs Brent at $100-110 to break even, Aramco can pump the very cheaply but their entire country is based around the assumption of far more enormous profits. The Saudis have money stashed away to pay for their expenses for a while, but there is growing worry they are burning through them too quickly and building too much debt. Agreed. Their cost of production is dirt cheap but their expenses are insane.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 17:40 |
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Baron Porkface posted:What do you think we should do about Saudi Arabia then? Uh, stop selling them weapons and doing their diplomacy for them? I have a better question, why don't you give a reason why we shouldn't do that? icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Sep 29, 2015 |
# ? Sep 29, 2015 17:44 |
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Baron Porkface posted:What do you think we should do about Saudi Arabia then? Invade. Can you imagine the looks on their faces?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 17:47 |
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SedanChair posted:Invade. Can you imagine the looks on their faces? are you implying they'd still have faces?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 17:53 |
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SedanChair posted:It's now "Kevin Bacon" to point out that the U.S. hypocritically enables Saudi brutality. It's tumblr as well I suspect. How is the US enabling them to crucify someone.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 18:20 |
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Fojar38 posted:How is the US enabling them to crucify someone. By not requiring them to tone down on the Wahabi-isms and not calling them out on poo poo.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 18:23 |
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CommieGIR posted:By not requiring them to tone down on the Wahabi-isms and not calling them out on poo poo. If the US did that would the Saudi's listen?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 18:24 |
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Fojar38 posted:If the US did that would the Saudi's listen? It'd be more about going on the record and calling attention to their actions, with repercussions attached. Complacency is just as bad as enabling.
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 18:26 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:10 |
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Hey what are the chances of the entire SA regime going down in flames>?
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# ? Sep 29, 2015 18:27 |