So I've been spending the week trying not to refer to Jamal Khashoggi as Adnan Khashoggi because the murdered Saudi journalist wasn't, in fact, a billionaire arms dealer and playboy.

He was, however, his nephew.

Jamal Khashoggi had also worked for Saudi intelligence, had embedded with what would become Al Qaeda and was a member of the family that has tended to the Saudi royals since they booted the Hashemites out to Jordan and Iraq. So while MBS appears to have expected that he could totally rub out a dissident journalist without much fuss, it's kind of as if Don Jr. had whacked one of the Romneys. If, that is, Saudi Arabia were a democracy/kleptocracy rather than a de facto and de jure monarchy.

There are rumors that MBS might get taken out of the line of succession, which would seriously complicate all the reforms and initiatives Saudi Arabia is piling into right now.