While Trump Is Out Of Town

Having wrested the title of "crown prince" from Mohammed bin Nayef in June (crown prince the title of the presumptive next king in line, a title Mohammed bin Nayef relinquished without a great deal of fuss), Mohammed bin Salman has moved to further consolidated control over the fate of Saudi Arabia by taking key individuals into custody on charges of corruption.

Few observers expect there is no corruption in Saudi Arabia. Practices allowed, almost required, by the realities of great wealth may turn out to be corrupt if it suits the politics of the moment.

The world has had its fill of dynamic males, and yet will not cease but offer them up, even in the bleak quarters of Arabia.

This Week in Depositions

It would seem the recent roundly covered Saudi conflict with Qatar is a feint, a fight picked by the Saudis to deflect regional attention from a concomitant grab for power inside Saudia Arabia itself, by the current king's son, Mohammed bin Salman, who has stripped the standing crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, of the title and assumed it for himself. This most likely recapitulates moves made countless times in countless prior dynasties around the world, as one actor or another forces the issue. And so, yes, Mohammed bin Salman's acts are politically, a cliché. The grab for rule. This is how dynastic struggles play out, often enough. Regionally, everyone watches Qatar while this unfolds inside Saudi Arabia. Oh, monarchy.

September in Civilization

Saudi Arabia agrees to host training of moderate Syrian rebels

Something about the idea of moderate Syrian rebels cries out for a Monte Pythoning, I suppose. A training room somewhere outside Riyadh run according to the tenets of moderate rebellion.

What civilization hath wrought, given six thousand years and home field advantage: the Saudi royals underwrite a proposed replacement for the current Syrian government composed of "moderate" rebels, while the utterly compromised Iraqi govenment lies in tatters, suffering reconstitution just the other day by the newly installed Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, whose administration currently faces the loss of considerable amounts of territory once presumed to be Iraq but held, forcibly for now, by an entity called ISIS as part of its newly proclaimed caliphate, which entity is now targeted for bombing by the USA. Politically the situation could not be more fluid, if by fluid the full flavor of catastrophe might be conveyed.