PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf

This is disturbing to say the least.

The PGA Tour is merging with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf, following months of tensions and mounting lawsuits between the competitors.

The two entities signed an agreement that would combine the PGA Tour’s and LIV Golf’s commercial businesses and rights into a new, yet-to-be-named for-profit company. The agreement includes DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour.

IV Golf is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, an entity controlled by the Saudi crown prince and has been embroiled in antitrust lawsuits with the PGA Tour in the last year. The deal announced Tuesday would end all pending litigation.

PIF is prepared to invest billions of new capital into the new entity, CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The agreement — the second stunning sports deal in just months, following World Wrestling Entertainment’s merger with Endeavor Group’s UFC — will require the approval of the PGA Tour policy board, Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that was obtained by CNBC.

Source: CNBC: PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf

Let us not forget 9/11 and Osama Bin Ladin’s backers, who were, in fact, some of the Saudi princes. If I were a professional golfer, I would resign from the PGA and find something else to do. Let’s not forget about the Saudi’s cozy relationship with China too.

This stinks like a rat.

Others: PGATOUR.COM, Politico, The Daily Beast, ABC News, Breitbart, Quartz, Mediaite, 24/7 Wall St., New York Post, RedState, Associated Press, Forbes, Fox News, NPR, The US Sun, Awful Announcing, CBS News, The Daily Caller, Just The News. Political Wire, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, Fox News, ESPN, The Hill, TMZ.com, New York Post, Mediaite, Awful Announcing, The Hollywood Reporter, Sportico.com, The Gateway Pundit, The Spectator World, NBC 7 San Diego, Next Impulse Sports, UPI, The Daily Caller, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera, Ad Age, CNN, MLive.com, Oregonian, National Review, Financial Times, Forbes, al.com, Deadline, Reuters, Golfweek, The US Sun, Joe.My.God., The Messenger, WGN-TV, PGATOUR.COM and CBS News, more at Mediagazer »

GOP and Dem Senators introduce bill to force a vote on selling arms to the Saudi’s

I am with The American Conservative on this one, it is about time. For years, the United States has been fighting Al-Qaeda and ISIS, all the while ignoring the fact that these terrorists are in fact Saudi’s and Sunni Muslims.

Via NBC News:

WASHINGTON — Two senators plan to introduce a bill Monday designed to force a vote on current and future U.S. arms sales and other military support to Saudi Arabia, saying it was time lawmakers checked President Donald Trump’s attempts to bypass Congress on foreign policy.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who both sit on the Foreign Relations Committee, marks the latest counterpunch by lawmakers who strongly oppose selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and who are outraged at the Trump administration’s recent decision to sidestep Congress on an arms deal worth billions of dollars.

“The process we are setting in motion will allow Congress to weigh in on the totality of our security relationship with Saudi Arabia, not just one arms sale, and restore Congress’s role in foreign policy-making,” Murphy said in a statement.

Last week, a bipartisan group of senators, including Murphy and Young, proposed nearly two dozen resolutions that would require votes on each of the arms sales that make up the $8.1 billion weapons package to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan announced by the Trump administration on May 24. By law, arm sales require congressional approval but the Trump administration avoided any review by lawmakers for the controversial deal by declaring a national security “emergency,” citing the threat posed by Iran.

Daniel Larson at the American Conservative writes:

Murphy and Young have been two of the most consistent and active opponents of our government’s despicable Yemen policy, and they have been fighting to reassert Congress’ role in matters of war for the last several years. Young, a Republican from Indiana, has been one of a handful of senators from his party to break ranks with the administration and vote to end U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen. It is encouraging to see many members of Congress are standing up against executive overreach and abuse of power. The Murphy-Young legislation is just the latest example of how the president’s obnoxious subservience to the Saudis and the UAE has provoked growing dissatisfaction and resistance among our representatives in Washington. Murphy and Young’s bill complements the bipartisan effort to stop Trump’s bogus arms sale “emergency,” and it goes beyond that…

[…]

Congress should use every tool available to it to challenge the administration’s unconditional support for the Saudis. Each time they succeed in passing new measures against arms sales and the war on Yemen, they increase the number of people in Congress and the public willing to speak out and criticize the noxious U.S.-Saudi relationship. Thanks to the Trump administration’s contempt for Congress and the Constitution and their equally strong enthusiasm for the Saudi government, that relationship is in worse shape than it has been in decades, and there is a large and growing backlash against our government’s continued backing for the Saudis and their crimes.

Agreed. If we are going to hold Iran accountable, we should hold the rest of the Arab world accountable as well and this includes the Saudi Government as well. Good to see that both sides are coming together, if just for this one issue.

My thoughts on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi

I have mixed feelings on this story. On one hand, we cannot allow something like this to stand and on the other, do we really want to risk losing the Saudi’s as allies?

It really doesn’t matter now, as the Saudi’s are talking turkey now, as it were: (Via The Washington Post)

Quote:

RIYADH — The Saudi government acknowledged early Saturday that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, saying he died during a fistfight, but the new account may do little to ease international demands for the kingdom to be held accountable.

The announcement, which came in a tweet from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, said that an initial investigation by the government’s general prosecutor found that the Saudi journalist had been in discussions with people inside the consulate when a quarrel broke out and escalated to a fatal fistfight.

The Saudi government said it fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudis as a result of the initial investigation. Those fired included Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri.

The announcement marks the first time that Saudi officials have acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Ever since he disappeared on Oct. 2 while visiting the mission, Saudi officials have repeatedly said that he left the consulate alive and that they had no information on his whereabouts or fate. He had gone to the consulate to obtain a document he needed for his upcoming marriage.

The Saudi statement comes as the kingdom is facing unprecedented political and economic pressure to disclose what happened to Khashoggi, a critic of the government and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. But it is unclear whether the Saudi explanation — which clashes with details provided by Turkish investigators and makes no mention of the crown prince — will be enough to satisfy foreign leaders, global business executives and U.S. lawmakers pressing for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Turkish investigators had concluded days ago that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team dispatched to Istanbul. U.S. officials have said that Turkey has audio and video recordings providing evidence that the journalist was interrogated and killed and his body cut into several pieces.

Khashoggi’s body has not been recovered, and the Saudi statement did not address what happened to it.

President Trump said Friday night that the arrests were a “great first step” but that he wanted to talk further to the Saudis about the investigation. He added that if sanctions were imposed on the Saudis over the killing, he would prefer they didn’t include arms sales.

Something tells me that this issue is going to mop itself up and disappear in the media really quick. You can bet that there is some big pressure behind the scenes.

Others:

Vox, CNN, TheDrive, Patterico’s Pontifications, Political Wire, The Guardian, Raw Story, twitchy.com, Joe.My.God., Committee to Protect …, Mediaite and The Week ,New York Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money and VICE News, more at Mediagazer »

Video: War could be coming in the middle east

As I wrote yesterday, I have a bad feeling about the situation in the middle east, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Well, this video, via CBN basically confirms my beliefs.

Here’s the video:

Looks like Chuck Baldwin was right. If this was the Saudi’s way of fighting terrorism, they just made a huge blunder and might have provoked something that they might not be able to stop themselves and at some point, America, of course, will get involved. 🙁

Saudi Arabia announces effort to combat the groups that they fund

I saw this last night and because I was a bit tired, I did not write about it. So, I am doing it now. I have to admit; I laughed about this one. The very people who are funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda are now going to try and form “an alliance” against these very groups. That, my friends, is funny.

The Video:

The Story via NBCNews.com:

 

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new “Islamic military alliance” to fight terrorism.

The announcement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency said the coalition is being established because terrorism “should be fought by all means and collaboration should be made to eliminate it.” …

The new counterterrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen. African nations that have suffered militant attacks such as Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria are also members.

Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Shiite Iran, is not part of the coalition. Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposite sides of in the wars raging in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia is currently leading a military intervention in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels and is part of the U.S.-led coalition bombing the Sunni extremist ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Here’s a real kicker:

Iraq and Syria, whose forces are battling to regain territory taken by ISIS and whose governments are allied with Iran, are not in the coalition.

 

Ed Morrissey observes the following:

 

Seeing Iran and Saudi Arabia on the opposite sides of a regional conflict is obviously nothing new. However, ISIS is a Sunni phenomenon, not a Shi’a group. They attack Shi’ite mosques within their reach, which is one reason among several that Iran has provided resources and military personnel to fight ISIS in Iraq’s Sunni-held areas. Iraq may be a client state of Iran more than in the past, but it needs to find ways to get the Sunni tribes allied with Baghdad to some extent if Iraq is to defeat ISIS in its own territory. The obvious partner for that would be Saudi Arabia, and for Saudi Arabia, the government in Baghdad is essential to that counter-terrorism fight too … if that’s what the priority truly is. Clearly, the new alliance has other priorities.

The Saudis aren’t the only entity nominally in the anti-ISIS fight with a curious set of priorities, either. Russia has escalated its diplomatic and military clash with Turkey (also in the Saudis’ new alliance) by bombing targets near Turkey’s borders to target anti-Assad forces there.

[…]

The Russians have other priorities, too. Their first priority is to prop up Assad. Turkey’s first priority is to depose Assad. Iran wants to prop up Assad too, but they’re more interested in expanding the grip of Shi’a Islam in the region. The Saudis and their new alliance have as their first priority to boot Iran out of Yemen and roll back both Shi’a and Iranian influence in the region.The only players that actually have ISIS as its first priority are the Kurds and the US, the latter of which has withdrawn from leadership in the fight and the former of which are the only effective force in the field against ISIS. And the latter won’t directly support the former with arms and material, but insists on working through Iran-based Baghdad instead.

Chuck Baldwin, in one of his most recent columns observes the following at Newswithviews.com:

 

ISIS is composed of mostly radicalized Saudi Arabian Sunni Muslims. The goal is to dispose of President Assad’s government in Syria as a stepping stone to conquering both Syria and Iran, thus turning those Shia Muslim nations into Sunni Muslim nations. The result of which means Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will become the de facto king of the entire Middle East. It would also mean that King Salman (already the richest man in the world) would single-handedly control the oil of the entire Middle East. And as everyone should already know, King Salman is in the harlot’s bed with virtually the entire western banking and petroleum worlds.

[….]

Neocons and globalists in Washington, D.C., are using the Shia Muslim people as the proverbial straw man to topple the governments in Iran and Syria, because those Shia Muslim nations care absolutely nothing about getting in bed with the international traders who want to further enrich themselves from the profits that can be made in those countries. The only one who is seriously making war against ISIS is Russia’s Vladimir Putin. And his efforts against the Sunni terrorists began but just weeks ago.

The refugee crisis is a tool of globalists to destabilize the West and help usher in a global Police State. Again, the goal is a global economic system. The Federal Reserve has taken the U.S. and European economies to the brink of collapse. The only thing that globalists can do to circumvent this inevitable collapse is create global panic, global war, and a global Police State. A Europe and America invaded with angry Muslims is just the antidote.

Please understand that the vast majority of refugees are NOT terrorists. They are persecuted Muslims and Christians (and others) who are literally fleeing for their lives. But there is no question that CIA-backed Sunni terrorists have infiltrated these refugees.

Ask yourself, why would refugees seeking safety and protection in other countries want to murder hundreds of citizens within those countries? They know this would completely alienate the country against them and only serve to further endanger the lives of their families. The attacks in Paris were NOT committed by refugees; they were committed by CIA-backed, Saudi-backed, Mossad-backed, Turkey-backed, MI6-backed ISIS terrorists.

Even though the majority of refugees are doubtless harmless people who did not want to leave their homes and did so only for their very survival–and with the knowledge that western operatives have created a radical Muslim Frankenstein–and given the fact that our federal government is making no attempt to vet these refugees, it is foolish for states to accept them. Governors are right to refuse. (If the U.S. government was truly behaving in the interests of peace and was not an active participant in creating war and instability in the Middle East–and thus creating the refugee crisis to begin with–it would be a different story.)

In addition, how did those terrorists successfully pull off these coordinated attacks? How did they get fully-automatic rifles and bombs into Paris? These sand people are NOT that sophisticated. They do NOT have those kinds of connections. Do you think you could successfully get a group of people together and smuggle dozens of automatic weapons and explosives into a European country–and then successfully coordinate a large-scale attack in a high-security major downtown city? The only people capable of such a thing are Special Ops military personnel. In other words, ISIS had help, folks–a LOT of help.

 

So, now, the Saudis are going to try and stop the group that they help start and now fund? Can you say kabuki theater? Ed Morrissey say this is what happens when America leads from behind; however, I have a different take. This is what happens when America invades a country based on outright false information propagated by a corrupt President and Vice-President. This is also what happens when a status of force agreement is broken by Iraqi President and when a President tries to placate his left-wing of his own party and pulls out of a Country too fast.

However, the fact remains, and the neocons, like Morrissey will not accept is that if we had just kept our noses out of Iraq, we would never even be here. But, now, we are and we’re stuck with this mess. Thanks Neocons, ya jerks. 🙄