<story><title>Pushback against Saudi funding endangers Silicon Valley valuations</title><url>https://www.epsilontheory.com/funding-secured/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdtsc</author><text>&amp;gt; A feudal monarchy makes a fine ally. The next it isn&amp;#x27;t, it doesn&amp;#x27;t. The next day, one little murder in the journalist persecution capital of the world threatens to blow up the entire alliance, military, political &amp;amp; economic.&lt;p&gt;Just like selective law enforcement is a tool used to oppress and exert power so is selective outrage used to drive public opinion.&lt;p&gt;There is something odd about this case. It is a terrible crime of course and should be condemned. But it seems we went from the head of Interpol disappearing in China and everyone not caring much, to let&amp;#x27;s start a war with SA over a journalist most people haven&amp;#x27;t heard of before. Something is unusual and I feel there is more to the story and more to the motivation to push the story at this point in time.</text></item><item><author>netcan</author><text>Whether this murder-scandal blows over or not, it makes the case for a random &amp;quot;one-damned-thing-after-another&amp;quot; version of history.&lt;p&gt;One day, the real-politic thing works. All money is green. A feudal monarchy makes a fine ally. The next it isn&amp;#x27;t, it doesn&amp;#x27;t. The next day, one little murder in the journalist persecution capital of the world threatens to blow up the entire alliance, military, political &amp;amp; economic.&lt;p&gt;Saudi Arabia&amp;#x27;s had an erm.. &amp;quot;eventful&amp;quot; power transition (MBS&amp;#x27;) but it isn&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;fundamentally&lt;/i&gt; different. It&amp;#x27;s a monarchy in the real, undiluted sense. Laws and courts are mostly religious. There are no rights, on paper or in practice. No freedom of speech, affiliation, religion or concious. No pretense of these either. Religion &amp;amp; Monarchy share power with eachother. Neither are bound by rule of law or by the people in any way.&lt;p&gt;Are these barriers to alliance, trade or investment? Whatever your answer, I don&amp;#x27;t see what Khashoggi&amp;#x27;s murder changes. Yet, this murder (or some other catalyst event, if this blows over) &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; change everything.&lt;p&gt;It really does seem like random chance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rsync</author><text>&amp;quot;... over a journalist most people haven&amp;#x27;t heard of before. Something is unusual and I feel there is more to the story and more to the motivation to push the story at this point in time.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The victim was a reporter for the Washington Post and so it doesn&amp;#x27;t surprise me that his peers in the press are driving the story more than other stories.&lt;p&gt;Not only do they have a personal connection to this individual but his death is a particular affront to their power and their role in the political process - and they have a weapon to wield in response.</text></comment>
<story><title>Pushback against Saudi funding endangers Silicon Valley valuations</title><url>https://www.epsilontheory.com/funding-secured/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdtsc</author><text>&amp;gt; A feudal monarchy makes a fine ally. The next it isn&amp;#x27;t, it doesn&amp;#x27;t. The next day, one little murder in the journalist persecution capital of the world threatens to blow up the entire alliance, military, political &amp;amp; economic.&lt;p&gt;Just like selective law enforcement is a tool used to oppress and exert power so is selective outrage used to drive public opinion.&lt;p&gt;There is something odd about this case. It is a terrible crime of course and should be condemned. But it seems we went from the head of Interpol disappearing in China and everyone not caring much, to let&amp;#x27;s start a war with SA over a journalist most people haven&amp;#x27;t heard of before. Something is unusual and I feel there is more to the story and more to the motivation to push the story at this point in time.</text></item><item><author>netcan</author><text>Whether this murder-scandal blows over or not, it makes the case for a random &amp;quot;one-damned-thing-after-another&amp;quot; version of history.&lt;p&gt;One day, the real-politic thing works. All money is green. A feudal monarchy makes a fine ally. The next it isn&amp;#x27;t, it doesn&amp;#x27;t. The next day, one little murder in the journalist persecution capital of the world threatens to blow up the entire alliance, military, political &amp;amp; economic.&lt;p&gt;Saudi Arabia&amp;#x27;s had an erm.. &amp;quot;eventful&amp;quot; power transition (MBS&amp;#x27;) but it isn&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;fundamentally&lt;/i&gt; different. It&amp;#x27;s a monarchy in the real, undiluted sense. Laws and courts are mostly religious. There are no rights, on paper or in practice. No freedom of speech, affiliation, religion or concious. No pretense of these either. Religion &amp;amp; Monarchy share power with eachother. Neither are bound by rule of law or by the people in any way.&lt;p&gt;Are these barriers to alliance, trade or investment? Whatever your answer, I don&amp;#x27;t see what Khashoggi&amp;#x27;s murder changes. Yet, this murder (or some other catalyst event, if this blows over) &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; change everything.&lt;p&gt;It really does seem like random chance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hobs</author><text>The connection is that they have grisly details to his murder, connected it to personal stories (did his wife get the recording he made with his apple watch? did who call whom before he died? Did it happen while he was still alive?) instead of generic humdrum disappearances among the elite.&lt;p&gt;How a story is told matters a lot to how people react to it.</text></comment>