Saudi Arabia has a lot of exiles and so far as I know, it's not murdering everyone who criticizes them.

Khashoggi is was not simply a journalist but a member of an influential family with Saudi Arabia [1]. MBS has dealt quite brutally with a variety of his internal opponents without Saudi Arabia. Murdering Khashoggi was something of a statement that MBS wouldn't let his direct opponents escape to other countries to oppose him.

To be clear, the murder was a horrific act by a brutal theocratic regime, I'm not noting these factor to condone it in any way but merely to give background.

[1] For example, this Khashoggi was a relative of Adnan Khashoggi, once know as the world's largest arms dealer.

“Only a little bit murdery” - op

No matter how I try to balance: "these are people who are killers and venally evil in nearly every sense of the word" and "But they are still intelligent and because they aim to maintain their significant power, they have to act in a measured, limited way that still involved logic and allows most 'little people' to go about their business AND we need to understand logic of these things BECAUSE these people influence so much.".

No matter how much I couch and balance my words, there's always someone ready to jump in with the crude simplification. Frick-off, jeesh.

And to further clarify, the Saudis don't murder exiles, in particular, wholesale. They do murder the Houthas and several other groups wholesale.

Relax I was just joking - I get what you’re trying to say

> I guess Khashoggi must have really annoyed MBS

Or MBS massively miscalculated. I can't imagine being Lord Emperor gives you many opportunities for people to tell you you're wrong about stuff

Well, MBS certainly has his own reasons to not like the owner of the Washington Post.

Khashoggi wrote for the Washington Post, so it wouldn’t be a favor for Trump. It would be consistent with his own motivations for murdering Khashoggi.

Great theory, except for the fact David Pecker was directly involved and more or less admitted it was a favor for Trump which he had been doing for decades.

David Pecker was, IIRC, the guy who also directed the 'catch and kill' with Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trumps-fixers-silenced-sto...

While David Pecker was involved in the brokering of the hush money deal with Stormy Daniels, which Michael Cohen eventually made (and prosecuted for), the "catch and kill" payment was made to Karen McDougal, which was another Trump affair.

It is insane to me that Trump is a pariah for the religion crowd

> Definition of pariah. 1 : a member of a low caste of southern India. 2 : one that is despised or rejected : outcast.

I'm not sure I understand your comment

What weight does that hold when MBS actually killed the WaPo journalist? The proof is right in front of us.

What are you talking about? Nobody is refuting that MBS killed Kashoggi. What I'm refuting is that the Bezos hack wasn't a favor to Trump. It clearly was.