Wow, that's crazy.
>Silicon Valley big wheels as Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman and Travis Kalanick are advisors to a $500 billion megacity project being built by the country, which has pitched it as a model of what future cities will look like.
Has Sam Altman commented on this project at all, or is it not associated with YC?
It's litearally medieval, which is par on course for what this odious country (regime, to be more clear). It's pretty much what Saudi Arabia is: a medieval regime in 2018.
Of course, they just had to have trillions of dollars of oil under their feet, hence we are accustomed to seeing our elected representatives, our leaders, bowing and kissing the hands of that scum. Repugnant.
If you don't think anything that billionaires (and their ilk) do is suspicious, then people are not looking hard enough. Just because they made their billions via tech doesn't make them any more benevolent.
The whole west, and in particular the US has made a faustian bargain with Saudi Arabia. Sooner or later someone has to answer for that.
Our number one terrorists problem comes from Wahabism, the toxic strain of Islam, coming straight out of Saudi Arabia funded by petro dollars.
It was weak and embarrassing that we could not back up Canada when they stood up to these bullies.
Is Canada only able to stand up like this due to the decreased competition improving the quantity of profitable petroleum reserves? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Canada
Moreover, I think this points to a need for greater energy independence. Be that capturing solar energy more effectively or actually modern nuclear plants that burn up the fuel instead of producing lots of waste.
Look at the show he put on trying to make this go away: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18196783 (and my best effort transcription)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson lost his job partially due to his opposition to KSA and UAE attacking Qatar (which did not happen because of lack of US support).
For now USA-KSA-Israel have a common purpose vis-a-vis Iran, and I do not think that is going to chance in the near term, but mid-term on since USA has ample energy reserves and in its pivot to greener energey sources KSA is of limited help, its very likely the KSA story will unravel. But the Chinese and Indians need that Arab-petroleum they may have to step-in if US steps-out.
But the Saudi / Iran relationship has always struck me as odd. The main issue is that the US truly messed up our relationship with Iran in the 1970s and 1980s (and they reciprocated: Iran-Contra affair and all that).
But as bad as the hostages / attacks / etc. etc. got between the US and Iran during the Cold War... Al Qaeda literally launched the 9/11 attacks from Saudi Arabia, and the infamous hijackers were primarily from Saudi Arabia. The militant form of Wahhabism was Osama Bin Laden's religion and is strongly based in that area.
I mean, we somehow kept a good relationship with the Princes of Saudi Arabia, and I understand that the leadership of that country does cooperate with us. But for all the bluster about "Islamic Extremist Terror", Mr. Trump bowed down and participated in swords dances last time he went into Saudi Arabia... never once bringing up the issue publicly the last time he had a chance.
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All in all, I'm happy that the general US Population is waking up to the fact that our "ally" in the middle east deserves far more scrutiny than we've been giving them so far.
I don't necessarily want our relationship to go sour. But we need a serious and stern talking to Saudi Arabia in general, that we the USA do not approve of a lot of the things that country does. Frankly, those princes have far too cozy a relationship with Wahhabism for me to be comfortable with, and their human rights record is pretty bad as well (see the primary story about Jamal Khashoggi)
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40926963
Saudis Said to Use Coercion and Abuse to Seize Billions:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-ar...
Saudi Arabia arrests economist after he criticises Crown Prince's plans:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-a...
https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-execs-named-saudi-board...
Calling people out by name that they are hypocrites by taking Saudi money and basically funding murder would get you killed in most countries.
There is also the failed blockade of Qatar. Seems like this has been a pretty disastrous few years for MBS and he isn't even king. Im surprised he hasn't been replaced. These are pretty massive blunders.
Uh, he just took a chainsaw to a guy who said he didn't like the color of his robe. Would you suggest replacing a guy who does that if you were inside elite circles in The Kingdom?
What's easier / cheaper? Paying a group of guys to just "go to X, kill him in the streets" or the whole "make it look like a car accident" route from movies? The former is easier, cheaper and quicker. I mean these people bankrolled the largest terror attack on US soil and we still do business with them, why would anyone care about a single journalist?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08...
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/yu...
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/15/911-report-s...
This same country is armed by the Brits.
> “typically, entrepreneurs don’t like to focus on politics and historically have not cared very much where the money came from,” except if it’s “from the PLO or Iran.”
Quote from "Longtime VC Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston"
See also:
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2015/02...
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2015/01...
