Stuff to Read

Of all the exhausting amount of stupid in the news today, for some reason this irked me the most

A major evangelical leader has spoken in defense of US-Saudi relations after the apparent killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate, saying that America has more important things — like arms deals — to focus on.

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, appeared on its flagship television show The 700 Club on Monday to caution Americans against allowing the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia to deteriorate over Khashoggi’s death.

“For those who are screaming blood for the Saudis — look, these people are key allies,” Robertson said. While he called the faith of the Wahabists — the hardline Islamist sect to which the Saudi Royal Family belongs — “obnoxious,” he urged viewers to remember that “we’ve got an arms deal that everybody wanted a piece of…it’ll be a lot of jobs, a lot of money come to our coffers. It’s not something you want to blow up willy-nilly.”

Just how far, and how many times, can evangelicals throw Jesus under the bus? He’s got to be nothing but bloody pulp by now. So to speak.

I’m recommending this Facebook post. Of course, wingnuts have decided that Jamal Khashoggi is mixed up in Islamic terrorism. Larisa Alexandrovna Horton explains why this is absurd.

Greg Sargent comments on the apparent aid Trump is giving Mohammed bin Salman to forge a coverup. Another good reason to subpoena Trump’s tax returns?

Ivanka Trump learned how to do business from her old man — lies and deceptions mean profits!

Charles Pierce comments on the O’Rourke-Cruz debate.

I ran into a couple of op eds today with musings about why Jamal Khashoggi’s death has gotten more coverage than the many deaths in Yemen. Steve M already wrote the blog post I planned to write, so I don’t have to.  But, seriously, the situation in Yemen gets virtually no news coverage in the U.S., and this is true even though the U.S. is involved and the atrocity is certain to come back and bite us some day. If you were to stop a thousand Americans in the street and ask them “What do you think about what’s going on in Yemen?” you’d be lucky to find one who had even a glimmer of an idea about what’s going on in Yemen. And if Jamal Khashoggi hadn’t been a journalist, and somebody that many in the national press corps knew, we’d probably be hearing only a little about him now.