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posted by martyb on Monday May 29 2017, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the clueless-people-praising-authoritarianism dept.

Common Dreams reports

Speaking to CNBC on Monday [May 22], [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross, who accompanied Trump on the weekend trip to Riyadh, said he found it "fascinating" that he did not see "a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. Not one guy with a bad placard".

[...] Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Center for Middle East Policy, told CNBC afterwards that Saudi Arabia is among the "most repressive" of free speech in the Middle East, adding: "Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy which forbids any political protest or any manifestation of dissent. It is also a police state that beheads opponents."

In Why Were the Saudi Streets So Quiet?, also via Common Dreams, Medea Benjamin adds:

Protest is illegal in the kingdom. It's also against the law to "distort the reputation of the kingdom" or "break allegiance with the ruler". A 2014 anti-terrorism law treats virtually all free expression as acts of terrorism, including "calling for atheist thought"; "contacting groups or individuals opposed to the Kingdom"; and "seeking to disrupt national unity" by calling for protests. People who dare dissent are publicly flogged, tortured in prison, and sometimes publicly beheaded.

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @08:15AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @08:15AM (#517060)

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Drug Dealers During Trump's Phillipines Visit

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Polar Bears During Trump's Arctic Visit

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Jews During Trump's Nazi Germany Visit

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Policy Discussion During Trump's Congress Visit

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Americans During Trump's Russia Visit

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Funny=4, Touché=1, Total=5
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @02:28PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @02:28PM (#517150)

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of IQ from Trump's protesters.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @09:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @09:09PM (#517313)

      Every single move Trump has made so far has been an effort to make rich people richer.
      Unlike Reagan, there isn't even the pretense of "trickle down".
      ...and you might ask Kansans how Sam Brownback's trickle-down thing is working out for them.
      Hint: That's a failed hypothesis in USA.

      At the same time as the already-very-wealthy get even more wealthfare, [google.com] The 99 Percent continues its downward economic spiral [google.com] with the social safety net being chopped away, as they labor under Capitalism (a system that makes rich people richer).

      Explain how supporting any of this (voting/working against your own self-interest) demonstrates a particularly high IQ.

      If you are so inclined, add a description of how supporting a child president, whose intellectual and emotional development stalled at age 7, makes the USA better and more secure.

      ...or, is it just this simple?
      (The Reactionary's Creed)
      Do what hurts people of color--even if it hurts the majority of people, to include people of your own pigmentation and socio-economic strata.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @03:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @03:02PM (#517157)

    Commerce Secretary Praises Lack of Iraqi 'Fugees During Trump's Sicily Visit [theglobeandmail.com]

    The G7 leaders will see no rickety boats full of desperate migrants. The waters off the Taormina coast in eastern Sicily were being patrolled by Italian navy frigates – for security reasons, no landings nearby would be allowed (most of the migrant landings happen in southern Sicily, or on Lampedusa, the Italian island halfway between Sicily and Tunisia).