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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: 1, Touché) by jmorris on Monday May 29 2017, @06:26AM (4 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Monday May 29 2017, @06:26AM (#517045)

    Maybe it is the same sort of thing that has caused a certain NYT columnist to obsess about wishing we could be more like Communist China and waxing poetic about the virtues of absolute dictatorship. While assuring the horrified readers he doesn't really mean it of course and it is just a passing fancy as he laments how easy it is China to do X while we are stuck without because of popular opinion (i.e. people too stupid to see how brilliant Thomas Friedman is), the political system (weak fools who won't put the Enemy into camps where they belong) here, etc.

    At this point, who in the Trump Administration could be blamed for the occasional daydream about beheading a few reporters or protesters (BIRM) and getting on with MAGA. Yea, everybody knows it can't be done, at least not yet, but everybody needs a dream to get em through. Right?

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:31AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:31AM (#517098)

    Or maybe its none of that, but you are so agitated about that stuff that you just had make a post so you could virtue signal.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:40AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @11:40AM (#517100)

      You should stop staring at jmorris' virtues, and grow a pair of your own, deviant!

      • (Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Monday May 29 2017, @01:40PM (1 child)

        by SpockLogic (2762) on Monday May 29 2017, @01:40PM (#517127)

        You should stop staring at jmorris' virtues, and grow a pair of your own, deviant!

        Wow, jmorris has virtues. Who knew.

        --
        Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @07:04PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2017, @07:04PM (#517277)

          I'm pretty sure he considers them virtues.