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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. M Hello,

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Speaker 1: welcome back to the show. My name is Matt Our.

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Speaker 1: Comrade Noel Brown is out of the studio on an adventure,

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Speaker 1: but we'll be returning soon. Hello. They call me Ben.

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Speaker 1: We're joined with our super producer Paul Decant. Most importantly,

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Speaker 1: you are here, and you are you, and that makes

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Speaker 1: this stuff they don't want you to know. Matt, Matt,

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Speaker 1: I've got I've got to ask, just for the sake

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Speaker 1: of the show. I feel like I already know the

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Speaker 1: answer to this. Have you ever traveled to the Middle

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Speaker 1: East in a way that you can reveal on air? No, okay,

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Speaker 1: fair enough, I've never traveled to the Middle East at all.

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Speaker 1: The furthest I've gone that way is the pretty much

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Speaker 1: the eastern edge of Spain. Uh, without going into it

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Speaker 1: too much trivia fact. I don't know if we've ever

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Speaker 1: mentioned this on the show before, but you and I

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Speaker 1: are very old friends, and you know this. There's some

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Speaker 1: countries that I'm not allowed to travel in as in

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Speaker 1: the I'm sure they would be glad to have me,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think I would get out. And some

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Speaker 1: of those are some of those are Middle Eastern countries.

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Speaker 1: So is one of them Saudi Arabia. No, I think

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Speaker 1: I'm fine, and Saudi Arabia is very US friendly. Bully.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned Saudi Arabia because that's one of

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Speaker 1: the things we're exploring today. You have probably heard of

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it's

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Speaker 1: actually called. We're going to call it the k s

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Speaker 1: A at different parts in this podcast. It is one

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Speaker 1: of the most powerful countries in the Middle East. But

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Speaker 1: that's weird because frankly, here in the West, we don't

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Speaker 1: hear much about this kingdom, either good news or bad news. Now,

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Speaker 1: a lot of that has to do with cultures here

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Speaker 1: in the West, at least the media that's available to us. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it might show us very different things about what occurs

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Speaker 1: over there. Um, you know, Western versus Middle Eastern. Let's

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Speaker 1: say culture in general, it's over time has been represented

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Speaker 1: maybe let's say poorly on either side, oh the other Oh,

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Speaker 1: I agree, especially especially before the rise of secularism and

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Speaker 1: then the later rise of Islamophobia. Those are just things

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Speaker 1: here in the West. When you hear just of phrase

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, Wait, what do you think of um? I

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Speaker 1: think of deserts. I think of oil. I think of

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Speaker 1: vast reserves of oil and money. I think about drifting

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Speaker 1: vehicles drifting because I've just seen so many videos of

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Speaker 1: that online. There's a huge culture of car stunts in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. It looks really cool. Also, the food looks great.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna point that, dude, the food does look great.

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Speaker 1: And I also think Islam because it's got some of

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Speaker 1: the holiest sites in all of Islam. Yeah, the Kabba

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Speaker 1: is considered the holiest site, followed by the Prophets mosque

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Speaker 1: uh and the this is the holiest site is also

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Speaker 1: referred to as the Cube. It's a building at the

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Speaker 1: center of the most sacred mosque in Mecca. Yeah, the Kebab,

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Speaker 1: the cube structure. That is the thing you may have

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Speaker 1: seen in videos on the internet where there are seas

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Speaker 1: of people moving in a counterclockwise position around it. Right,

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Speaker 1: It's part of one of the rituals for the Hajj.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, the the people making this pilgrimage run a

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Speaker 1: total of seven times counterclockwise, the first three times at

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Speaker 1: a faster pace, four times closer at a slower pace.

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Speaker 1: And that's that's one of the rituals. It's it's meant

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Speaker 1: to demonstrate the unity of the believers in the worship

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Speaker 1: of God as they move in harmony around this. It's

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Speaker 1: amazing to watch it is. It is amazing. It's a

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Speaker 1: powerful thing. We generally here in the West are not

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Speaker 1: going to hear too much about Saudi Arabia, which is

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Speaker 1: why I'm very interested to hear what automatically pops in

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Speaker 1: someone's mind if they are not from the Middle East

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Speaker 1: or they are not Muslim, right, I want to know

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Speaker 1: what occurs to people because I I thought of a

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Speaker 1: lot of the same things, you know, the empty quarter,

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Speaker 1: it's gigantic desert, uh, and I think of the very

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Speaker 1: specific dress that people have, the customs of dress, the food. Um.

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Speaker 1: We are examining something very strange that's happening in modern

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia as we record this, and to bring us

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Speaker 1: to the present moment, we're going to need to to

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Speaker 1: walk through the past a little bit. So I'm actually

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Speaker 1: I'm actually wearing my wild Stallion shirt from Bill and

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Speaker 1: Ted's excellent adventure. Yeah, you know, it's maintained its color

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Speaker 1: better than I expected that it would. Okay, I can

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Speaker 1: tell you guys, don't believe me because it's under my sweater.

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Speaker 1: Here he actually is wearing pao w y l D.

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Speaker 1: It's real. You guys thought I was messing around. I

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Speaker 1: had to pull a Superman on that. You had two

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Speaker 1: shirts on top of it. Buddy, I wear layers. It

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Speaker 1: is very cold outside today. But I also just said buddy,

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Speaker 1: and I know I should. I'm so sorry. Alright, So

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Speaker 1: side note, we have had matt uh and Nolan and

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Speaker 1: I have had an ongoing conversation about whether or not

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Speaker 1: calling someone buddy is condescending, and it's okay. I think

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Speaker 1: it's great. I like Buddy. I called you buddy like

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Speaker 1: eight years ago and you told me not to and

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Speaker 1: you said, my dog's name is Buddy. Oh that is true.

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Speaker 1: Did I say no? Yeah? You you were the way

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Speaker 1: shut it down. You were the one, all right, Well,

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Speaker 1: no more buddy than pal alright, buckaroo? Yeah no, wait,

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Speaker 1: let us know. Let us know if you think buddy

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Speaker 1: is condescending, if a stranger calls me buddy, I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna take it as fighting words, you know what I mean. Agreed? Agreed.

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Speaker 1: So let's go back in time, yes, to look at

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Speaker 1: the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. How did

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Speaker 1: it get here? Could we get a time travel cue o?

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Speaker 1: That last bit always gets me. Yes, Well, luckily we

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Speaker 1: made it. We made it, Matt. Here we are the

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Speaker 1: land that will later become known as the Kingdom of

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia has an ancient history, and we're we're here

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Speaker 1: when the first signs of human habitation are in full swing.

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Speaker 1: If we're relying on far flung future research, this puts

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Speaker 1: us around nine thousand years ago, because in our modern age,

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Speaker 1: that's the first sign of humanity in this area. And uh,

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Speaker 1: it's you see that guy who's given us the finger?

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Speaker 1: Do that? Don't be salty. It's just a finger in

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Speaker 1: his culture. He doesn't know that what it means to us.

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Speaker 1: But it turns out that years later, uh, future archaeologists

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Speaker 1: are going to find a piece of that middle finger.

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Speaker 1: He's wagon at us. Wow, Oh that's really cool. He

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Speaker 1: just had a boo boo. Yeah, or perhaps he won't

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Speaker 1: of us to be part of history. That that middle

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Speaker 1: finger segment is later going to be found an archaeological

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Speaker 1: site called Tall's Algata close to a northwestern city called Taima.

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Speaker 1: This means, according to experts, that humans could have been

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Speaker 1: living in the area a long, long time ago. You

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Speaker 1: can read some different claims. The claims that you'll read

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Speaker 1: in the West are going to differ from the claims

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Speaker 1: that you'll read in Saudi Arabia or in Arabic literature rather,

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Speaker 1: and that happens. That happens pretty often. You'll see some

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Speaker 1: of the same differences are different conclusions, different conclusions. When

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Speaker 1: you look at research by Chinese institutions about ancient China

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Speaker 1: versus Western institutions. There at least as we're here now,

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Speaker 1: as we travel through time, we're predating Islam by a

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Speaker 1: wide margin. Uh. There are they're gonna be at least

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Speaker 1: thirteen ancient pre Islamic towns that will later be found

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Speaker 1: in this area. Uh though right now as you and

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Speaker 1: I are standing here in the ancient past, there are

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Speaker 1: probably going to be several more that are still lost

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Speaker 1: to time. So let's fast forward to the seventh century. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's when we're talking about Saudi Arabia becoming the global

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Speaker 1: seat of Islam. And like we said it. It just

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Speaker 1: has inside of it some of the holiest sites in

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Speaker 1: all of the religion. And then we get a little

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Speaker 1: bit further past the seventh century, we're going, actually a

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Speaker 1: lot further where we're going, we're going to the twentieth century.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, that's so fast and just you never expected. Um,

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Speaker 1: we're now in nineteen thirty when Saudi Arabia as we

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Speaker 1: know it begins to coalesce, when um Abdulla Ziz al

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Speaker 1: Saud founded the state itself. And let's go head forward

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Speaker 1: to the modern days since we're here today. The kingdom

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Speaker 1: occupies a unique space in the world of geopolitics. It

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Speaker 1: is both home to one of the world's most prominent

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Speaker 1: religions and it is also home to one of the

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Speaker 1: world's richest sources of oil. Yes, and it's full of

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Speaker 1: people who lives here, Okay, there are a lot. As

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Speaker 1: of right now, there are over twenty seven million human

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Speaker 1: beings living there. That is around twenty three million Saudi

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Speaker 1: nationals and eight point four non Saudi nationals. Um about

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Speaker 1: the population is under the age of twenty five, so

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Speaker 1: over half under twenty five, and that that's statistic is

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Speaker 1: as of February two thousand twelve, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the it's a little older, but it's the most reliable

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Speaker 1: data we can find at the time. Now, up until

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, a lot of the population in Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia was nomadic or at least semi nomadic, So um

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Speaker 1: a lot more movement in the culture of those families

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Speaker 1: than just you know, getting to one place and staying

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Speaker 1: right this this comes from sort of a Bedouin tradition. Yes, Now,

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Speaker 1: the massive economic growth that Saudi Arabia has been experiencing

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Speaker 1: over these you know, past a few decades really has

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Speaker 1: changed the culture like crazy. More than of the population

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Speaker 1: is now settled. So a lot of this move A

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Speaker 1: lot of the money I guess that becomes generated over

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Speaker 1: these past few decades allows people to stay in one

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Speaker 1: place rather than having to move to you know, chase

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Speaker 1: whatever resource you're you're trying to chase. And of Saudia's

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Speaker 1: live in ten major urban centers. This this sounds like

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Speaker 1: a crazy statistic, just that rate of change, but Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia is not alone by any means in this. I

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Speaker 1: think it was just in the past what nine years

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Speaker 1: or something, since we've been working together that the major

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Speaker 1: pority of the world's population began to live in urban centers,

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Speaker 1: metropolitan areas. The rural lands are being Uh, there's a

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Speaker 1: huge brain drain going on. Strange. It's strange, but it

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Speaker 1: makes it makes sense. Um, That's why it's not as

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Speaker 1: weird as the rate of change may sound. Here. The

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Speaker 1: phenomenon itself is not by any means unique to Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 1: Most most Saudi Arabians are ethnically considered Arabs, and the

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Speaker 1: majority of those are tribally considered Bedouin. So many Arabs

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Speaker 1: from nearby countries are employed in the Kingdom, particularly people

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Speaker 1: from Egypt. So you might identify yourself as an Arab

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Speaker 1: but not Saudi Arabian, and you travel to Saudi Arabia,

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Speaker 1: probably one of those ten major urban centers, in search

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Speaker 1: of employment. Right. Yeah. And another thing you'll find in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia or the large numbers of expatriates people who

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Speaker 1: have come from other countries, from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia,

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Speaker 1: the Philippines and recently because of the upheavals occurring around

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Speaker 1: the world, Syria and Yemen. Right and side note, in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, there was a pretty

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Speaker 1: large community of South Korean migrant laborers that were numbering

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Speaker 1: in hundreds of thousands, but most have since returned home.

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Speaker 1: Other than that, there are more than a hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: Westerners living in Saudi Arabia, most of whom live in

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Speaker 1: private compounds. That must be an interesting life. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I wonder what life is like there, because you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people move there for business and they

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Speaker 1: bring their family along. And some of our friends, colleagues

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Speaker 1: and co workers have also been uh you know, been

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Speaker 1: traveling kids and lived in lived in these compounds, gone

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Speaker 1: to international schools. And if you have had this experience

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Speaker 1: then we would love to hear from you as well.

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Speaker 1: You can write to us at Conspiracy of How Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. So here we go. Religion, yeah, alright, religion,

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Speaker 1: all right, so make no bones about it. Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: is a strict theocracy governed by the House of Saud,

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Speaker 1: otherwise referred to as the Saud Family. They practice Sunni Islam,

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Speaker 1: not Shia Sunni Islam. That is the official state religion,

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Speaker 1: and for a long long time, Saudi Arabia's dominant faith

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Speaker 1: has been a type of Islam known as Wahabism. This

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Speaker 1: is an austere form of the religion that insists upon

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Speaker 1: a literal interpretation of the Kuran. Now that might sound

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Speaker 1: a bit strange to some people because they would say, well,

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Speaker 1: the Koran is interpreted literally. Other people as well. This

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Speaker 1: this is a little bit different because strict Wahabbies believe

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Speaker 1: that all those who do not practice not only Islam

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Speaker 1: but their form of the religion are heathens and enemies.

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Speaker 1: And before anybody decides to cast a stone, let us

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Speaker 1: consider that the majority of religions that have different denominations

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Speaker 1: have at least the couple that say the same thing, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: there's some extreme Christian sects who argue the same thing.

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Speaker 1: If it's not our brand of Christianity, then it might

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Speaker 1: as well be Satanism. Well yeah, and it's specifically, if

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Speaker 1: you don't interpret our Holy Text literally and with the

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Speaker 1: words that are being said at least as interpreted and

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Speaker 1: transcribed from the languages that they originate, than you are

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Speaker 1: doing the wrong thing. And I have been a part

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Speaker 1: of something kind of like that, at least in a

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Speaker 1: belief structure of my own creation. Are you a I cool? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're cool. Now I think I'm cool. Now I'm alright,

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Speaker 1: I'm not in. Yeah, you know what, Okay, alright, that

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Speaker 1: sounded like you were on the fence. So just for

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Speaker 1: a moment, I appreciate you take it a step there

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Speaker 1: and knowles into right. Well, I mean not currently, We'll

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Speaker 1: have to see really. Yeah, I like him, he's cool.

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Speaker 1: He's cool. The only people that are in are the

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Speaker 1: ones that I can see in this present moment. So

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Speaker 1: is that is that one of the tenants system? Quite literally,

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Speaker 1: if I don't see you, you don't exist. Cell Phones

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Speaker 1: supposed to be really complicated, don't understand well speaking in

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Speaker 1: fantastic segues. Critics argue that the rigidity of this particular

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Speaker 1: interpretation of Islam has led it to misinterpret and distort

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Speaker 1: the the practices and platforms of this religion and of

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Speaker 1: the Quran, which seems counterintuitive because one would think that

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Speaker 1: a literal interpretation would be possibly closest to what the author,

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Speaker 1: the prophet Mohammed originally meant, right, unless, of course, they

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Speaker 1: were writing a metaphor, and that's a that's a whole

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Speaker 1: other bag of badgers. We can we can reach out

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Speaker 1: to some of our friends who research the evolution of

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Speaker 1: a religion itself a controversial term, we understand to get

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Speaker 1: a little more insight on that, but these critics would

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Speaker 1: typically point to religious extremists such as Osama bin Laden

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Speaker 1: or the Taliban and the explosive growth of this this concept,

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Speaker 1: this denomination, for lack of a better term, began in

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Speaker 1: the nineties seventies when Saudi charities started funding schools or

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Speaker 1: mud russas and mosque all across the world, from Islamabad

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Speaker 1: all the way out to Culver City, California. So they

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Speaker 1: took it global right, and critics will also further further

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Speaker 1: ad or further attempt to drive their objections home by

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Speaker 1: noting that factions of Saudi Arabia's elite have participated and

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Speaker 1: funded terrorists or religious extremist or paramilitary operations around the world,

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Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, waging a religiously motivated

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Speaker 1: proxy war or something dressed as a religious war. And

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Speaker 1: a lot of times those funds get channeled through the

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Speaker 1: charities by the the what they would call the elite

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Speaker 1: from Arabia's elite, and then it goes to various places

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Speaker 1: and we're we're talking about some disturbing stuff here and

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Speaker 1: a lot of it is stuff that people have heard

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Speaker 1: on some level before. But we're in no way, We're

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Speaker 1: in no way saying that the the actual people are

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Speaker 1: individuals of this region are in any way different from you,

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Speaker 1: different from any of your friends listening. Uh. We're we're saying,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the institutions, the organizations, and we're gonna

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Speaker 1: continue with some cultural issues that are being dealt with

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Speaker 1: in the k s A and have being have been

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Speaker 1: dealt with for a long time, and they're pretty dark.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get into them right after a quick word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor and we're back. Thanks for providing that

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Speaker 1: breath of fresh air, MAP, because we are diving into

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Speaker 1: one of the things that I'm convinced most Westerns have

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Speaker 1: heard of. If even if you're not very familiar with

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia in general, uh, and that is human trafficking. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Exploitative employment, right would be would be one way to

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Speaker 1: phrase it. But what it is in practice is the

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Speaker 1: fact of slavery. Saudi Arabia has huge problems with human

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Speaker 1: traffic game, primarily in the field of migrant labor. And this, again,

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Speaker 1: this is not just Saudi Arabia. This this encompasses. This

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Speaker 1: problem encompasses the Gulf States in general. The Global Slavery

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Speaker 1: Index estimates that over ninety two thousand people are currently

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Speaker 1: enslaved in Saudi Arabia. Wow. Yeah, And there there are

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Speaker 1: two ways this. Two primary avenues here, uh, construction workers

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Speaker 1: held in debt bondage. You know, you your employer has

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Speaker 1: your passport, controls or visall bring you to Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: with you know, the hopes of reaching enriching your life

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Speaker 1: and perhaps the lives of your families, and you then

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Speaker 1: owe them. They have to recoup their expenses on the

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Speaker 1: plane ticket, but then surprise, they have to recoup the

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Speaker 1: expenses on your food where you're lodging, which might be horrible.

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Speaker 1: And there's interest and there's no you know, there's no

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Speaker 1: such thing as OSHA, which is the organization here in

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Speaker 1: the United States that is meant to enforce workplace safety.

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Speaker 1: I said there would be interest, and we've got a

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Speaker 1: listener mail a long time ago and did little research.

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Speaker 1: Apparently there would not be interest. It's a gift. There's

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Speaker 1: a gift thing that functions like interest, but it's not usury. Right.

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Speaker 1: The other the other avenue of this facto enslavement will

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Speaker 1: be the idea of household servants primarily from some of

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Speaker 1: the country's matt mentioned earlier. These will primarily be women

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Speaker 1: from Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. There is

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Speaker 1: an ongoing epidemic of abuse here on the rape and

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Speaker 1: assaults are largely at least in the past, have largely

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Speaker 1: been supported by the state level interpretation of Islam, which

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Speaker 1: hinges upon this argument that you can consider some women

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Speaker 1: as things quote your right hand possesses, and that's been

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Speaker 1: interpreted as slaves, most immediately sanctioned sex slaves. So the

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Speaker 1: idea that you are paying someone to be a living

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Speaker 1: made or a babysitter or something here just sounds like

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Speaker 1: a job, right, But there it has become conflated with

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Speaker 1: concubines and slavery. And this is of course completely non

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Speaker 1: consensual on the parts of people who thought they were

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Speaker 1: being hired to have a job. And it it should

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Speaker 1: be said here that the United States has um for

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Speaker 1: various stated reasons, sometimes just speculated reasons, failed in the

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Speaker 1: opinion of I think, the global community to push for

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Speaker 1: any kind of human rights in the Gulf States and

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Speaker 1: in general or in particular in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: United States has a heartbreaking, just I'm laughing out of helplessness,

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Speaker 1: that absolutely disgusting record when it comes to any kind

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Speaker 1: of advocacy for human rights in the Middle East, across

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Speaker 1: the board from from Oman all the way up through

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Speaker 1: Jordan's Syria, et cetera. Is just the Middle East in

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Speaker 1: general for one reason or another. I'm not knocking the

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Speaker 1: individuals in the State Department. I'm saying that US policies

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Speaker 1: have not prioritized the importance of you know, gender equality

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Speaker 1: or human rights as to near the degree that other

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Speaker 1: people would expect the world's police force to do. If

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Speaker 1: that's what the US purports itself to be. And then

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Speaker 1: if we move on, speaking of rights, what about people

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Speaker 1: who are citizens? What about people who are born there,

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Speaker 1: who are born there, it's there a native land, and

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Speaker 1: they're not a migrant laborer. They're not suffering under this

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Speaker 1: abuse system. One of the biggest issues is the concept

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Speaker 1: of equality for women. Historically, Saudi Arabia have been a

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Speaker 1: very very very difficult place to be a woman. The

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Speaker 1: genders are sharply segregated, and obviously Saudi Arabia is not

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Speaker 1: currently the kind of place that would engage in gender fluidity.

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Speaker 1: You're not going to find in a unisex bathroom. No,

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Speaker 1: it's a very black and white situation. You're a man

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Speaker 1: or you're a woman. And until fairly recently, women were

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Speaker 1: not allowed to do things like vote, or drive, or

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Speaker 1: go somewhere unaccompanied, pursue higher education and so on. That

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Speaker 1: appears to be changing. And just just some background before

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Speaker 1: we get to in the geopolitics here, Saudi Arabia has

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Speaker 1: a lot of economic heft and it's based on fossil fuels. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's home to the world's most valuable company. Who I mean,

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Speaker 1: how that's how many people can say that it's not Apple.

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Speaker 1: It's not Apple. It's called Saudi Aramco. It's an oil company.

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Speaker 1: It's responsible for the production of the kingdom's fossil fuel

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Speaker 1: exports and this energy let's call it behemoth. It's valued

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Speaker 1: at anywhere this is a large range here, anywhere from

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Speaker 1: one point to to ten trillion dollars. Uh. Wow, that's

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Speaker 1: a large valuation. And it's because the amount of oil

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Speaker 1: that has existed underneath Saudi Arabia that's accessible for drilling

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Speaker 1: and for exporting, for decades and this, uh, this company,

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Speaker 1: Saudi Aramco, controls it pretty much all of it. You know,

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Speaker 1: one of my old professors used to is a bit

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Speaker 1: of a partisan. He used to call he would say

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Speaker 1: that Saudi Arabia is the most cantankerous member of OPEC,

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Speaker 1: and he said the he said that the Organization of

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Speaker 1: Patroleum Exporting Companies, and he said that OPEC only exists

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Speaker 1: to make oil more expensive and to restrict the flow

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Speaker 1: of it. And I thought, well, that's kind of cynical,

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Speaker 1: Like I don't you know, I don't know. I would

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Speaker 1: love to hear your union on OPEC as well, folks.

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Speaker 1: And speaking of this interaction here, we didn't even talk

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Speaker 1: about arms deals. We did not talk about arms deals

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Speaker 1: coming in and out of Saudi Arabia. The United States

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Speaker 1: likes to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, and the United

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Speaker 1: Kingdom cut a like sank and buried a very important

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Speaker 1: legal investigation because Saudi Arabia threatened not to go through

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Speaker 1: with a military hardware deal if they continued investigating. And

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Speaker 1: you know, we're just saying here, but you bring in

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Speaker 1: a lot of weapons, military grade weapons from countries that

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Speaker 1: specialize in developing these weapons. You can do with them

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Speaker 1: what you please, and if you need to sell them,

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Speaker 1: there's another good source of income. Just saying, and this

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Speaker 1: leads us to relationships with other countries, which is something

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Speaker 1: we could examine at length in a different episode or

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Speaker 1: a different show. So as the seat again of holy

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Speaker 1: sites in Islam, and as one of the world's most

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Speaker 1: influential petrol exporters, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias swings far

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Speaker 1: above its weight class in the world of geopolitics. The

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Speaker 1: elites of the United States and the ruling tribe of

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Speaker 1: uh Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud, have a long running,

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Speaker 1: very close and often controversial relationship because the US provides

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Speaker 1: support on everything from infrastructure to military might, and Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia and the United States are at least factions of

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Speaker 1: the Saudi Arabian elite, and factions of the US elite

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Speaker 1: have been thickest thieves ever since Nixon sold them on

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Speaker 1: the Petro dollar. Ye, and it feels very strange to

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Speaker 1: even say this, but Saudi Arabia has a problem there.

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Speaker 1: Let's say they're notorious for using a wealth and power

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Speaker 1: that it's uh that it's gotten to prevent the elites

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Speaker 1: amongst its people from meeting justice for crimes abroad. So

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Speaker 1: if they're in another country and they do something let's say,

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Speaker 1: let's say something like theft, or maybe they're smuggling drugs,

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Speaker 1: or some kind of abuse occurs, some physical or sexual abuse.

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Speaker 1: Even let's say one of the elites kills somebody in

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Speaker 1: another country. Um, they can get away. It goes beyond

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Speaker 1: what we would imagine as diplomatic community. It's because of

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Speaker 1: the power. Yeah, in a very real sense, these individuals

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Speaker 1: are considered above the law. And uh, you can read

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Speaker 1: numerous accounts, as Matt said, of each of those crimes

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Speaker 1: being committed and the person who committed them not ever

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Speaker 1: seeing justice in one in the country in which they

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Speaker 1: committed the crime. And of course we do have to

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Speaker 1: add a grain ex salt here. Is it possible that

426
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: we are only hearing Western propaganda or only hearing one

427
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: side of the story. Absolutely, that's why. Yes, that's why

428
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: I feels so strange to say it, because you know,

429
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 1: the elite, at least from this country, have a certain

430
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: amount of that. Probably, I mean, okay, is that all

431
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: Western propaganda? Though? Matt? Is it is? It? Is it? Paul?

432
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: It's possible, but it's not plausible. It's not plausible. There

433
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: couldn't be that. There cannot be that many reports from

434
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 1: Southeast Asia, to Indonesia, to the United States, even unto

435
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. I mean, you can even see videos of

436
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: Saudi elites doing abuse, like horrible things to what I

437
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: guess they would call their um. There are workers people theirs. Yes,

438
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: you can see it, and nothing occurs, nothing happens, and

439
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: it's just I don't know, it's like you said, heartbreaking.

440
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: So again, it would be cartoonishly unfair for us to

441
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: say this applies to every single member of this fans.

442
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: Every family has a has a couple of you know,

443
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: every family has a couple of jerks in and just

444
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:33,479
Speaker 1: because someone has happens to be higher on whatever, uh,

445
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: whatever temporary hierarchy exists in society at the time. That

446
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they're all good or bad people. They're

447
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: just they're just people whose parents make different choices. So

448
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 1: who the hecks a charge here? Right? If this is

449
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: very is very family based. Right. Similar to the Democratic

450
00:31:55,320 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 1: People's Republic of Career North Korea, Saudi Arabia is absolutely

451
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: ruled by a single family and their close relations. And

452
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 1: this means and you know how this stuff irritates me, Matt.

453
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: This means that if you were born as someone who

454
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 1: is on the outside of this hierarchy, even if you

455
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 1: are a Saudi Arabian national, even if you're brilliant, even

456
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 1: if you're brilliant, then you have apps. If you are

457
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: the Saudi Arabian Elon Musk and you are not a

458
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: member of this single family, you have virtually no chance

459
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: of succeeding in government, regardless of your abilities. You are

460
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: just born wrong. And as a result, ministerial positions, very

461
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 1: powerful ones are assigned based on who has been the

462
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: most successful u currying favor in court. And this brings

463
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: us to we said things are going to get crazy.

464
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: This this brings us close to that point. There's someone

465
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: very important that we want to tell you about. After

466
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsor, friends and neighbors, ladies and gentlemen,

467
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 1: we would like to introduce you to Mohammed bin Salman

468
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: bin Abdulaziz al Saud. Yes. Yeah, he recently became the

469
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, effectively becoming

470
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: the power behind the throne. At the time of our recording.

471
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 1: He is thirty two years old. He became crown Prince

472
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 1: on June one, seventeen. But weight Ben, you might be saying,

473
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 1: but wait, Matt, hold your horses. Isn't there supposed to

474
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: be a king of Saudi Arabia. Yes, but he is

475
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: not making the calls the way that the crown princes. No,

476
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 1: he's older at this point in the crown Prince is

477
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: just taking the reins of power. Essentially. The current king

478
00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 1: is Salmon bin Abdulaziz al Saud. He has been the

479
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 1: king since twenty fifteen. His his major initiatives include some

480
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 1: progressive things and then some dangerous things. Uh. He is

481
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,439
Speaker 1: the one who made the call to intervene in the

482
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: civil war and yeomen uh. He also is the one

483
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 1: who is technically responsible for the decree in seventeen allowing

484
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: women to drive in the country. But back to Crown

485
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: Prince Mohammed ben Salomon, who's making all all these comments.

486
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: And when in Arabic, when you hear Ben, it's spelled

487
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: b i n and it's like son of So it's

488
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: really Mohammed, son of Salomon's son of Abdul Aziz al Suh.

489
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 1: So his ascension to power. Mohammed ben Solomon was accompanied

490
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,840
Speaker 1: by the typical trappings of any state power transfer. You

491
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: hear about it in elections in the United States, even

492
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,720
Speaker 1: if it's just a state representative or a city council member.

493
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 1: Someone's like, you know, I'm gonna change things. Yeah, it

494
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 1: sounds good from a podium. There's gonna be a better

495
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,879
Speaker 1: life for the citizens. Yeah, they're the ones who live

496
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: here and pay the taxes or whatever. Right, Yeah, not

497
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: anybody from out of country. Right. I love the idea

498
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 1: of somebody making these grandiose speeches for local office, like

499
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: as city comptroller, I'm gonna what is I'm gonna drain

500
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 1: the swamp. I'm gonna drain the comptrolling swamp. Uh. Yeah,

501
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 1: better life for citizens, more progressive stance toward energy economics,

502
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: he said, a modernized culture, and so on. All good

503
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:46,840
Speaker 1: things to hear, right, and even better if they actually

504
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,840
Speaker 1: come true. It's the standard fare of a lot of

505
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 1: newly emergent politicians, dictators, and rulers. But Mohammed ben Salmon

506
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 1: was a little bit different. He did not he and

507
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 1: he said this on record. He did not consider Saudi

508
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: Arabia a normal country and he had not considered it

509
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,239
Speaker 1: a normal country for at least three decades. And he

510
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: said he did not come to continue business as usual,

511
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 1: which you know, of course everybody says when they when

512
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: he get elected or you know, um, if people are

513
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: unhappy with the current set up, right, I'm I'm different right. Uh. Instead,

514
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:27,239
Speaker 1: he said he wanted to remake Saudi Arabian society in

515
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: its entirety, and as we record this, that's exactly what

516
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:36,799
Speaker 1: he is trying to do. Here's where it gets crazy. Well,

517
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: it turns out the Prince wasn't just laying down some

518
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 1: of that pillow talk, blowing a little bit of those

519
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: smoke rings towards you, towards all of us and his people. Um.

520
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: At the end of September, seen, he started taking some

521
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:56,520
Speaker 1: pretty brutal actions to consolidate power for himself. The culmination

522
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 1: of this process that kicked into full gear in June

523
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:03,359
Speaker 1: when he official became the Crown Prince. Um, it's been

524
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,919
Speaker 1: in no uncertain terms, the culmination of what we would

525
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: say is a real conspiracy, you know, one of those

526
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: things that we don't it's not a theory, right right,

527
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 1: it is not. It's not he planned and colluded and

528
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:24,160
Speaker 1: conspired in secret to uh to. He would probably clean

529
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: call it cleaning up the town or whatever, but he

530
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: took down a lot of people. And this conspiracy has

531
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 1: real world, immediate implications for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

532
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 1: and then the larger Middle Eastern region and the globe.

533
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 1: So what happened his rise to power is largely possible

534
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 1: due to the death of the old Guard, particularly the

535
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,280
Speaker 1: long serving ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense and the Interior,

536
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: themselves also princes. And he was able to do this

537
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: because when they died there was a power vacuum. There

538
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: was fluidity in upper echelons of government for years beforehand,

539
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 1: each of these princes kind of consolidated their own sphere

540
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:12,880
Speaker 1: of influence and then you would have these calcifications right

541
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: into into fiefdom's verticals, little verticals. Yeah, and so Mohammed

542
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 1: bin Salmon was on a mission essentially to soften some

543
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 1: of the notoriously puritanical theological stances that Saudi Arabia had

544
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: held for a long time, and he has pretty much

545
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 1: he's made some genuine changes, especially in the field of

546
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: gender equality. Right, that's exactly true, But this isn't entirely

547
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,560
Speaker 1: heroism in terms of this conspiracy, there may be a

548
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: dark side to it as well. It turns out he

549
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: held several billionaires hostage. Yeah, true story. I know it

550
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: sounds like a weird opener, but it's true. As part

551
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: of his vision for Saudi Arabia, Ben Salmon arrested first

552
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 1: arrested eleven Saudi princes in November. This is unprecedented, all

553
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: caps bold, those letters, full stop. It's kind of on

554
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 1: the level of, imagine the vice president at the time

555
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: that we are in the studio today. The vice president

556
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 1: is Mike Pence. Imagine if one day that guy just said,

557
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm arresting unilaterally, multiple members of Congress,

558
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:28,440
Speaker 1: all you you you you you get thee to the

559
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: Ritz Carlton. Because that's what he did, right, That's what

560
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,439
Speaker 1: Salmon did. Yeah. They kicked out all of the paying

561
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: customers at this Ritz Carlton, at least most of them,

562
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 1: I think all of them. And he put these people

563
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: in there and their families in the Ritz Carlton and

564
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 1: when he downed a lot of the or grounded a

565
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,800
Speaker 1: lot of the private aircraft so that people couldn't escape,

566
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:54,320
Speaker 1: cut communication lines, held them hostage, essentially I mean, we

567
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 1: could call it arrested to make it so more official,

568
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 1: but hey, at least they were at the Ritz. At

569
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: least they were at the rich you know. And also

570
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: if you were just one of the people who who

571
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,959
Speaker 1: was there at the time, would you want to stay.

572
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be a by standard to that.

573
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: That's a very scary situation. If they if they offered

574
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 1: me the choice and I knew what was going on,

575
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,919
Speaker 1: and I would say, you know, thank you very much.

576
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:25,040
Speaker 1: It was nice to meet everyone. I'm going I'm going

577
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 1: to the holiday and hey, anyone who lives in Saudi Arabia,

578
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: is there a holiday inn there anywhere? Let us know,

579
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 1: we just want to go to a hotel where we

580
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:42,799
Speaker 1: won't be by standards. It uh mass arrest of billionaires.

581
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,320
Speaker 1: So one of the people that was arrested was a

582
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,760
Speaker 1: guy named is a guy named Prince al Walid bin Talala,

583
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 1: one of the richest individuals in the world, when the

584
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: richest men in the world. He controls an investment firm,

585
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 1: Kingdom Holding, and he owned or has over his career,

586
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: owned major stakes in twenty first century Fox City Group, Apple, Twitter,

587
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: many many other companies that you have heard about ad Nauseam. Additionally,

588
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: he controls media outlets. He controls satellite television networks that

589
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: are huge across the Arabic speaking world. All in all,

590
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:24,440
Speaker 1: more than two hundred people were arrested in what was

591
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,680
Speaker 1: framed as a crackdown on corruption. How could you be

592
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: mad at that? It was a nice framing, really is.

593
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 1: And according to the authorities, they conducted a huge sweeping probe.

594
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 1: They got everybody, and they found at least one hundred

595
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: billion dollars had been misused through embezzlement and corruption over

596
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:47,799
Speaker 1: the past three decades, and over seventeen hundred bank accounts. Uh,

597
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: we're frozen, seventeen hundred They were all being apparently um

598
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 1: used as personal accounts, and these were not business accounts.

599
00:41:55,200 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: So these are just individuals embezzling money, according to the authorities, right, right,

600
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: and all at all, Fighting corruption is a good thing,

601
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,720
Speaker 1: right it is. Let's go back to our controller example.

602
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: You don't want to power mad controller taking all the

603
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 1: controlling money. He's got all the TPS reports and all

604
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: the tape. No, we're just I think we're just throwing

605
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:24,000
Speaker 1: around words. I think it might be increasingly obvious that

606
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 1: neither of us knows exactly what controllers do. There's a

607
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:33,280
Speaker 1: lot of printer paper involved, maybe no Excel spreadsheets. He's

608
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: in charge of the the Microsoft Excel serial numbers. That's

609
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:42,439
Speaker 1: what it is. So none of his employees can log

610
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: in unless he allows them to. I feel like you're

611
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: improvising this. Oh wait, wait, you're right. It's just looked

612
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 1: up the effectively the chief financial officer of a public body. Yeah,

613
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,560
Speaker 1: you nailed it. Hold of what I apologize, man, I'm

614
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:00,399
Speaker 1: sorry I ever doubted you. Problem that was my dad

615
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:03,759
Speaker 1: was an accountant. Was he a controller? No, he was

616
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 1: a controller though, No, he didn't have the comp He

617
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:11,399
Speaker 1: didn't have the comp. Well, we may have to walk

618
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: away from this controller example. But uh, but it it

619
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 1: is true that corruption is not desirable, at least culturally.

620
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:27,680
Speaker 1: It's it's considered undesirable here in the West. But here's

621
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 1: the problem when we go will we look at this

622
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 1: through a different lens. Saudi Arabia is an executive monarchy,

623
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 1: and this means that it does not possess written constitution.

624
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,800
Speaker 1: It does not have independent government institutions like a parliament

625
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,440
Speaker 1: or courts. And yes, of course, of course we know

626
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:51,720
Speaker 1: that a lot of the so called independent government institutions

627
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:56,319
Speaker 1: in countries across the world are independent on paper, right,

628
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: like the the legislative body of North Rhea is independent

629
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 1: on paper. Yeah, it's true. Uh, the there's a difference

630
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:11,880
Speaker 1: between paper and practice, is what we're saying. But accusations

631
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: of corruption are difficult to evaluate when even in theory,

632
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 1: these institutions would be evaluating this are not, in any

633
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:25,799
Speaker 1: shape fashion reform independent, and the boundaries between what would

634
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 1: be considered public funds and what would be considered the

635
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:34,880
Speaker 1: wealth of the royal family are pretty murky, and corruption

636
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 1: the way that many other countries would describe it is

637
00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: believed to be massively widespread, you know, like in the

638
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:47,280
Speaker 1: in the United Kingdom, there's the personal wealth of the monarch,

639
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:50,320
Speaker 1: whoever happens to be, you know, in charge of that

640
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:54,720
Speaker 1: tribal system at that time. And then there's the wealth

641
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: of the crown, which is sort of the office that

642
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 1: a monarch holds again entirely, entirely based on who their

643
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 1: parents were, in no way based on any qualifications. I'm

644
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 1: not saying that they're unqualified to be a monarch. I'm

645
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: saying that no one is qualified to be a monarch

646
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,120
Speaker 1: because it's a really stupid system. Sick burn. No, I'm

647
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,400
Speaker 1: just I I gotta stop harping on that. I feel

648
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,879
Speaker 1: like once a year I start ranting about how am

649
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 1: I just mad that I'm not an emperor some of

650
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 1: these princes and princesses and crown kings. I turned my

651
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 1: nose at the I think I think you would be

652
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 1: a pretty I think you'd be a pretty decent uh,

653
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 1: monarch of some sort. Matt, that's an awful thing to say. Well,

654
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 1: I don't think you would be a good dictator. I

655
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:50,239
Speaker 1: think you'd be a good monarch. Okay, Yeah, I mean

656
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:54,480
Speaker 1: I could totally open doors, walk out, you know, and

657
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: look at my subjects and go here. Yeah here, yeah,

658
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: my loyal subject. Everyone will be enjoying a Cuca Cola

659
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:08,239
Speaker 1: classic today, Sugar. Wait are you doing? Is? Is your

660
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,839
Speaker 1: monarchy has sponsorships? He does? Yes, there we go. That's

661
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: very that's very forward thinking of you. Man. Yeah, dude,

662
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 1: this robe was brought to you by Coca Cola. I

663
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:21,800
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm kind of into this idea. I

664
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 1: would vote for you. Oh no way, I'm not allowed

665
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:26,799
Speaker 1: to because it's a monarchy. I guess I would see

666
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 1: if I can sell you a sponsorship deal. But the

667
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, the line between my wealth as a

668
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 1: monarch and the the funds that come from my sponsors,

669
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 1: it is pretty murky. It is murky. It's pretty murky.

670
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 1: You know. I haven't ever seen you pay for a soda?

671
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:48,280
Speaker 1: What can I say? So? Um and yeah, of course,

672
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,600
Speaker 1: all right, I'll say it. It is true. Being a

673
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:55,800
Speaker 1: monarch is a very demanding job. You are attempting to

674
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 1: hold disparate unions of people together, and that's always always

675
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 1: going to be a tall order. I just think not

676
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,839
Speaker 1: choosing I just think choosing people on some system other

677
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:11,800
Speaker 1: than merit is a terrible way to go about it,

678
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: and its tradition and traditions are not automatically correct. Which

679
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:21,800
Speaker 1: is crazy that that's still a controversial statement in whatever.

680
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:24,680
Speaker 1: Don't hire your family just because they're your family. Oh

681
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 1: you're too controversial, Then you're too controversial. So it might sound,

682
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 1: it might sound noble to call this movement some kind

683
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: of stab against the corruption that's occurring in Saudi Rabia

684
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,440
Speaker 1: that hasn't existed there for decades. But the truth is

685
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 1: the rests, these particular rests seemed to center right smack

686
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 1: dab on the crown princes competitors, were talking about his rivals,

687
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 1: his enemies, pretty much anybody who who could be in

688
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 1: line for the throne or have enough money and influence

689
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:54,920
Speaker 1: to get in the in his way for whatever he

690
00:47:55,000 --> 00:48:00,719
Speaker 1: wants to do. It appears to be this way right exactly.

691
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:07,359
Speaker 1: And there's another hugely important fact here. Several of those

692
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: people that were, as Matt noted, shipped off to that

693
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:15,399
Speaker 1: Ritz Carlton arrested for corruption were released after they gave

694
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 1: up massive amounts of cash, or stocks or other assets.

695
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:23,240
Speaker 1: One businessman reportedly at tens of millions of Saudi reals

696
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:26,880
Speaker 1: the currency withdrawn from his account after he signed a

697
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:30,759
Speaker 1: release deal. In another case, of former senior official consented

698
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:34,560
Speaker 1: to hand over ownership of roughly one point zero six

699
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:39,840
Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of shares. So so there's a question

700
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:44,919
Speaker 1: here is this Is this the crown Prince taking back

701
00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:48,880
Speaker 1: money that belongs to the people in the state, quite possibly,

702
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:55,480
Speaker 1: or is it the crown Prince removing, yeah, removing the

703
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:59,600
Speaker 1: financial power someone would have to rise up against him

704
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 1: or or raise, you know, raise their own faction. Also,

705
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 1: there there's an ongoing war in Yemen. I think we

706
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 1: mentioned it briefly here. Earlier in the show, uh Mohammed

707
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:16,000
Speaker 1: Ben Salmon is actively waging that proxy war in Yemen,

708
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:22,799
Speaker 1: fighting Iranian influence in a continual Iranian Saudi Arabian conflict

709
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: that predates his ascension. The US is supporting this war,

710
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:29,360
Speaker 1: although you might not hear much about it if you

711
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:32,840
Speaker 1: only tune into broadcast news. But then again, if you

712
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,320
Speaker 1: listen to this show, you probably don't only listen to

713
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:38,239
Speaker 1: broadcast news. Especially might not have heard about it for

714
00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 1: quite a while because of how many things are occurring

715
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: geopolitically right now. It's kind of fallen by the wayside,

716
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:49,200
Speaker 1: which is awful, but it is very real, and people

717
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 1: is very real, and people are dying without much help.

718
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:57,879
Speaker 1: Ben Salmon, by the way, blames the nineteen seventy nine

719
00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:01,880
Speaker 1: Iranian Revolution for spark in the brutally strict state of

720
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:07,800
Speaker 1: Saudi theocracy today, So in his mind, he is he

721
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:12,560
Speaker 1: sees it as a reaction. He sees those two events

722
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:17,439
Speaker 1: as interrelated. So that's the that's the lay of the land.

723
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:24,840
Speaker 1: The current most powerful official other than the king in

724
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:28,920
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, the current Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is

725
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:32,879
Speaker 1: seeking to modernize the country says he's doing so, has

726
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:37,920
Speaker 1: taken steps to do so, uh, and arrested anyone who

727
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 1: would be a threat and effectively seems to have effectively

728
00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:45,840
Speaker 1: neutered them. What does this mean for the world. We

729
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:47,839
Speaker 1: can make some guesses at the end, but of course

730
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 1: we would be remiss if we didn't mention the other

731
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:54,800
Speaker 1: conspiracies or conspiracy theories that are present in Saudi Arabian

732
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,160
Speaker 1: cultured today. And this could be its own episode, But

733
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 1: I think we're running a little long already. Uh. So Ben,

734
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: just tell me about Saudi Arabia and Iran. So Sunni

735
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 1: versus Shia Islam, right, Uh, the same religion, different different interpretations, um.

736
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 1: And this is an argument that goes back a long time.

737
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 1: So there's the religious conflict, but then there's also the

738
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 1: desire to be the regional hegemon. Both control. Both control

739
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:31,839
Speaker 1: fossil fuels, right, and Iran controls something called the Strait

740
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:35,720
Speaker 1: of Hormus, which we mentioned previously, which is a vital

741
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:42,759
Speaker 1: water transit route for fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia has partnered

742
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 1: with other countries to help restrict the influence of Iran.

743
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 1: The t two very influential countries. There would be the

744
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:57,399
Speaker 1: United States and Israel. Saudi Arabia is very well known

745
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 1: for staunch public anti Semitism. But as we've said in

746
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:07,360
Speaker 1: previous episodes, take that with a grain of salt, because

747
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:11,400
Speaker 1: the stuff what was the word we used, performative, The

748
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:16,359
Speaker 1: performative speeches somebody might make to their domestic crowd might

749
00:52:16,400 --> 00:52:18,719
Speaker 1: be way different when they actually, you know, they meet

750
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 1: the prime minister of the other country and there's a

751
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 1: just stacks and stacks of cash available for deals and

752
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 1: their kids go to the same colleges and stuff, telling

753
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:32,000
Speaker 1: you fingers on the hand and as different as you

754
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 1: might think. Uh, and then Matt tell me a little

755
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: bit about the global sphere. We knew this was gonna

756
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:43,640
Speaker 1: come up. What's maybe even just as a teaser for

757
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:48,120
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia and the attacks on September eleven two one

758
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 1: oh yeah. There are a lot of allegations at Saudi

759
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:54,920
Speaker 1: Arabia funds terrorism, as we said, through those charities that

760
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 1: have been set up, and it's a well, it's a

761
00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 1: known known that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers from the

762
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:08,279
Speaker 1: September eleventh attacks were from Saudi Arabia, and they're they're

763
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 1: a handful of the classified documents. Well, there are loads

764
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 1: of declassified documents that show the United States was actively

765
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 1: investigating contact between some of the hijackers and several individuals

766
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 1: involved with the Saudi Arabian government at varying levels. And

767
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:28,440
Speaker 1: then we have a quote here from Fox News of

768
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:32,560
Speaker 1: all places, um it says, quote the nine eleven Commission

769
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:35,719
Speaker 1: report found no evidence that the Saudi government as an

770
00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:40,560
Speaker 1: institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the attacks al

771
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:45,239
Speaker 1: Qaeda masterminded. But the commission also noted the likelihood that

772
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 1: Saudi government sponsored charities did. So one more time, Saudi

773
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:55,360
Speaker 1: government sponsored charities did. Oh, come on, So the government

774
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,800
Speaker 1: at all, the big g government didn't do it, but

775
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:03,760
Speaker 1: these government spawn or charities probably did. That's what that states.

776
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,719
Speaker 1: So that's it. No money went out the front door, Yes,

777
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:09,600
Speaker 1: that's exactly what they're saying. But there was a backdoor there.

778
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:12,279
Speaker 1: There is a prominent backdoor that's been set up for

779
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 1: a long time to send money to places that would

780
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:18,120
Speaker 1: do something like this. Doors, by the way, on different

781
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:20,239
Speaker 1: sides of the same building. And we're just going to

782
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 1: use this visual now, all right. There's also the missing

783
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,360
Speaker 1: twenty nine pages from that nine eleven Commission report that

784
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,960
Speaker 1: was mentioned by that Fox article. Um it directly addresses

785
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,360
Speaker 1: the involvement of Saudi Arabian government actors who were likely

786
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 1: acting pretty much as their own factions, like as there

787
00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 1: what do we call verticals without the king's approval. So

788
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 1: the king had no knowledge of a lot of this happening,

789
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:46,520
Speaker 1: but maybe these other little groups with power did. And

790
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 1: we will delve into that in a future future episode

791
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:53,160
Speaker 1: I think will need to be the triumvirate of us here. Uh,

792
00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:57,960
Speaker 1: probably two part or two. And when we say government actors,

793
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: we mean people who were affiliated with the government, even

794
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:03,800
Speaker 1: if they weren't acting in their capacity as you know,

795
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:07,719
Speaker 1: an officialist or an official. Yet there's another one, though,

796
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 1: that you had told me a little bit about, which

797
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:13,160
Speaker 1: was the idea of controlling gas prices. Yes, uh, where

798
00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:14,919
Speaker 1: this is from a house stuff Works article. We're gonna

799
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:20,040
Speaker 1: jump right in. On April then Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed

800
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,640
Speaker 1: Ben Solomon announced the implementation of this thing called Vision

801
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:27,719
Speaker 1: twenty thirty and it's this ambitious plan the Kingdom has that,

802
00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 1: in the Prince's words, would rid the country of its

803
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: addiction to oil. Ben you actually made a video on this,

804
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 1: I believe, m or now for how stuff works? Now,

805
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,200
Speaker 1: did I? Yes? Oh wait, yes I did. I think

806
00:55:42,239 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 1: a lot of this comes directly from your words. I

807
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:48,440
Speaker 1: forgot about this, Matt. Yeah, it's it's a smart move,

808
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:50,839
Speaker 1: and it's something that quite a few Golf states are

809
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:53,480
Speaker 1: aiming to do, or several Gulf seats are aiming to do.

810
00:55:54,480 --> 00:56:01,359
Speaker 1: As we know, alternative sources of energy collection, distribution are

811
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:05,160
Speaker 1: on a precipitous rise, and in your lifetime if you're

812
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 1: listening to this, uh, the odds are the odds that

813
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:11,400
Speaker 1: you will have and an electric powered vehicle or solar

814
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 1: power infrastructure of some sort of rising precipitously, especially if

815
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 1: you live in a country that didn't completely botch alternative

816
00:56:21,239 --> 00:56:24,800
Speaker 1: energy like the US did in the eighties. Yeah. So,

817
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 1: the the the idea here is is noble, it's understandable,

818
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 1: and it's quite practical. Right. Yeah. The plans interesting. So

819
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,759
Speaker 1: they're gonna set up five percent steak in Saudi Aramco,

820
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:38,960
Speaker 1: remember that giant company, the oil company we talked, a

821
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:41,759
Speaker 1: most valuable company. It's gonna be a public offering, an

822
00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 1: initial public offering, an I p O. And then they're

823
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:46,840
Speaker 1: gonna pour a lot more funding into their public investment

824
00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 1: fund and it's gonna make it one of the world's

825
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:52,360
Speaker 1: largest public investment funds. And the third thing they're gonna do,

826
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:55,880
Speaker 1: this is the dangerous one for the Crown prints it

827
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 1: is because it's gonna be unpopular just with the people

828
00:56:59,200 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 1: that that he uh, I don't know what you call it.

829
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:07,120
Speaker 1: He controls, he lords over, he prints is over the citizens.

830
00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 1: The citizens well yeah, uh, the Kingdom is gonna cut

831
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:12,880
Speaker 1: various government benefits because there is a there are a

832
00:57:12,960 --> 00:57:15,640
Speaker 1: lot of benefits to living in Saudi Arabia if you're

833
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:18,840
Speaker 1: a citizen there. As a citizen, this, yeah, you'll have

834
00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:23,000
Speaker 1: you'll have a pretty solid job. Healthcare is taking care

835
00:57:23,080 --> 00:57:26,520
Speaker 1: of their various other subsidies. They're going to save an

836
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:30,640
Speaker 1: estimated sixty one billion dollars per year doing this. But

837
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:34,400
Speaker 1: then also they're gonna have and a rise in um

838
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:38,760
Speaker 1: I don't want to say unemployment, but there will. The

839
00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 1: government will need to find some kind of way to

840
00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:46,640
Speaker 1: translate the skills these people already have into business and government, yeah,

841
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:50,440
Speaker 1: and create the jobs somehow for that many points. Uh. So,

842
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:53,320
Speaker 1: while this is happening, the Prince also aims to raise

843
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 1: non oil revenue to a hundred and sixty billion dollars

844
00:57:56,760 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 1: by and two hundred sixty billion by twenty THO. That's

845
00:58:01,880 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Here's the problem, UH, two years ago,

846
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:08,440
Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen, that number that's supposed to be

847
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty billion was only forty three point

848
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:16,200
Speaker 1: six billion. Oh and also you can just to show

849
00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 1: you how unpopular stuff can be. UM, if you live

850
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:22,280
Speaker 1: in the US, then I'm sure you remember gas prices

851
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 1: spiking in the past. Recently in I believe it was

852
00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:30,840
Speaker 1: January seventeen, gas prices in Saudi Arabia rose by one

853
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:35,040
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven percent. So the domestic population is

854
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: beginning to feel the heat. And we'll see if this again,

855
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 1: this is an executive monarchy, so we'll see whether those

856
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 1: government subsidies actually end and what the results would be

857
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:49,600
Speaker 1: if they do. And now we want to close with

858
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:55,360
Speaker 1: a question what what's likely to me? It seems likely

859
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:59,440
Speaker 1: that unless there's UH an internal domestic or financial catastrophe,

860
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 1: aut Arabia may well be on the road to an

861
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 1: increasingly diversified economy, maybe even a more moderate culture. That's

862
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:16,360
Speaker 1: that's optimism or unfortunately, or as several other I guess pundits,

863
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:19,760
Speaker 1: analysts and critics have suggested, maybe this could just be

864
00:59:19,960 --> 00:59:23,080
Speaker 1: some sort of Western friendly dressing, you know, like maybe

865
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:27,080
Speaker 1: they just dolloped a little bit of ranch to soak

866
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:31,800
Speaker 1: over this salad, this house salad of despotism. They loomed

867
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:34,600
Speaker 1: it up with ranch. Ranch was the most American salad

868
00:59:34,680 --> 00:59:36,360
Speaker 1: dressing that I could think of. I think you hit

869
00:59:36,400 --> 00:59:37,880
Speaker 1: it on the head right there with that, and then

870
00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:40,800
Speaker 1: it did in Alaska, you know it, I did not

871
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:45,280
Speaker 1: know that it's true. Um, for my for my opinion,

872
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:49,000
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm feeling a bit cynical about a

873
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:52,880
Speaker 1: lot of this, But I think I personally need to

874
00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:56,920
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about the situation, right. I

875
00:59:57,000 --> 00:59:59,800
Speaker 1: think that's maybe how a lot of people listening a

876
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:02,640
Speaker 1: lot you might feel that same way. Like I've before,

877
01:00:03,400 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 1: truly understanding this, I need to spend some more time

878
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:09,040
Speaker 1: with it and then feel it out. But the cynic

879
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:11,080
Speaker 1: in me, the one that views the world pretty much

880
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:16,800
Speaker 1: the same way over says man, this is some ranch dressing. Really. Yeah,

881
01:00:16,880 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 1: I'm surprised because I think the Wow, maybe this situation

882
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:24,959
Speaker 1: where I'm more optimistic, I think it is, But again

883
01:00:25,120 --> 01:00:27,960
Speaker 1: I think it's because you know a little bit more

884
01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:30,240
Speaker 1: than I do, and for me seeing a lot of

885
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:33,760
Speaker 1: it on the surface, it feels like, oh, I'm suspect

886
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:37,200
Speaker 1: of all this. I would love to hear from Saudi

887
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:40,240
Speaker 1: Arabian national or someone who has spent time in the kingdom.

888
01:00:40,560 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, Please write to us less No, we

889
01:00:43,160 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: we are getting the signal here from our producer. Fortunately,

890
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:49,680
Speaker 1: we're going to have to call it a day. We

891
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:52,080
Speaker 1: know when a little bit long, but we do hope

892
01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:57,080
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode. Again, this was not a conspiracy theory.

893
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:02,480
Speaker 1: The Crown Prince worked cluded his secret and then arrested everybody,

894
01:01:03,200 --> 01:01:05,200
Speaker 1: which was just you know, it makes me think of

895
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 1: the Untouchables with Kevin cost Is that where they would

896
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:11,360
Speaker 1: go in and arrest everybody? Did that? Have? The Untouchables

897
01:01:11,400 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 1: are to the crew, right, the Motley crew of guys

898
01:01:13,720 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: when they're Tommy guns. Yeah yeah yeah. So, as as

899
01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:27,400
Speaker 1: you know, Matt, Noel, Paul and I consider you, specifically,

900
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:29,760
Speaker 1: you the most important part of this show. And if

901
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:33,840
Speaker 1: you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook or any

902
01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:37,200
Speaker 1: other social media platform, you see that occasionally we reach

903
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:40,040
Speaker 1: out and ask you for the ideas that you would

904
01:01:40,080 --> 01:01:43,120
Speaker 1: like to hear in the future. Well, we're going to

905
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: kick it up a notch, or maybe we should say,

906
01:01:45,640 --> 01:01:48,120
Speaker 1: go a little further down the rabbit hole, a little

907
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:53,200
Speaker 1: deeper into the black mirror accidentally sci fi reference. We're

908
01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:57,120
Speaker 1: starting a Facebook group where we can all interact with

909
01:01:57,200 --> 01:02:01,360
Speaker 1: each other directly, and we'd like your help. Yeah, specifically,

910
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:04,360
Speaker 1: if you ever listened to an episode and then wanted

911
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:08,360
Speaker 1: to go deeper down the rabbit hole and maybe post

912
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:10,880
Speaker 1: some of your findings somewhere where other people who are

913
01:02:10,920 --> 01:02:12,760
Speaker 1: going down their rabbit hole with you could find it

914
01:02:12,800 --> 01:02:15,920
Speaker 1: and then talk with those people about what you found. Well,

915
01:02:16,040 --> 01:02:18,720
Speaker 1: this is what this new Facebook group is going to

916
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:21,600
Speaker 1: do for all of us, including Ben and Nolan. I

917
01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:25,480
Speaker 1: you know, I I've I've been skeptical of Facebook groups

918
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:28,000
Speaker 1: in the past, you guys, but I actually was just

919
01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:30,800
Speaker 1: invited to join one the other day by our illustrious

920
01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:34,120
Speaker 1: graphic designer Pam Peacock here in the office. And it's

921
01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:37,320
Speaker 1: called now Playing. And it's literally just a Facebook group

922
01:02:37,360 --> 01:02:40,600
Speaker 1: where people post pictures and little comments about the Vinyl

923
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:44,160
Speaker 1: records they're listening to. Totally up my alley. I love it.

924
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:47,240
Speaker 1: It's in part of my life now. So this can

925
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:49,080
Speaker 1: be that thing for you, and it will be for

926
01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:51,520
Speaker 1: me for sure, because I'm as into this stuff as

927
01:02:51,560 --> 01:02:53,480
Speaker 1: I am in listening to vinyl records. So I'm excited

928
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:57,440
Speaker 1: to be part of two Facebook groups. Excellent. I'm I'm

929
01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:00,560
Speaker 1: pretty excited about being able to post further reading four

930
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:04,200
Speaker 1: shows that we do for for specifically people who are

931
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:07,120
Speaker 1: listening and really want to get deeper in things and

932
01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:09,919
Speaker 1: who knows. The stuff we uh talk to you guys

933
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:14,440
Speaker 1: about on that Facebook group could yield entire episodes or

934
01:03:14,520 --> 01:03:17,680
Speaker 1: maybe even a whole side conversation in the form of

935
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 1: some kind of spinoff down the line. Who knows. So

936
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:23,160
Speaker 1: we're in the early stages of this. We're still figuring

937
01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:26,080
Speaker 1: out a name. We'd like to hear your suggestions. As

938
01:03:26,080 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, if you have a if you

939
01:03:27,560 --> 01:03:29,440
Speaker 1: have a swell idea, and if you would like to

940
01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 1: get involved, We're looking for, as Indiana Jones would say,

941
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 1: or to paraphrase Indiana Jones, top people, right, We're looking

942
01:03:37,840 --> 01:03:40,600
Speaker 1: for top folks. Only the top, only only the top,

943
01:03:41,360 --> 01:03:44,560
Speaker 1: the creme Dela conspiracy Creme. If you would like to

944
01:03:44,680 --> 01:03:47,920
Speaker 1: serve as a moderator for the Facebook group. We'd like

945
01:03:48,040 --> 01:03:50,280
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send us an email directly.

946
01:03:50,520 --> 01:03:53,600
Speaker 1: We are conspiracy at how stuff works dot com.