Links: December 7, 2019

So some guy does something crooked with the Hilary campaign and gets indicted  for it.  What's the lede at NBC:

A businessman who helped broker a meetingbetween an ally of President Donald Trump and an official of the Russian government has been indicted for allegedly funneling millions in illegal campaign contributions to support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Sic Semper Tyrannis reports on it.

Every now and again Sic Semper Tyrannis posts a Russian Federation Sitrep by Russia Insider's Patrick Armstrong.  At the beginning is a little bit of info on how Russia is going along well enough despite the imperial war against it:

POWER OF SIBERIA. Putin and Xi turned on the pipeline on Monday. It carries gas from Russia's Far East into China and has a carrying capacity of 61 billion M3per year. There'll be more. This has no small strategic significance: previously, for foreign sales, Russia was dependent on customers in Europe who are all, to a greater or lesser extent, subject to pressure from the war party. Added to which transport was affected by Kiev's whims. Turkstream(scheduled to start next month) and the two pipelines to Germany help with the second problem and this one with the first. Sooner or later, Russia-China pipelines would have appeared but I think Ishchenko's argument that the Western war on Russia speeded up the processis credible. (Come to think of it, now that Putin's hand is imagined everywhere, maybe it's time to consider that he's the American war party's real backer; after all, everything it's touched has turned to dust: from the forever wars, to Iran's increased influence, to the Russia-China alliance and now the furore in the USA over Ukraine – itself another disastrous project.)

Other interesting stuff at the Sitrep.

Are the Saudis retreating from their murderous war against the Houthi?  Moon of Alabama thinks so; Saudi Arabia Retreats From The Troubles Its Clown Prince Caused

Caitlin Johnston has Fake News By Omission :  The Mass Media’s Cowardly Distortion Tool at her website about the conspiracy of silence on the OPCW scandal, but the Imperial Media does it on just about every story they can.

More Bandow at AmConMag: American Soldiers Are Not Bodyguards For Saudi Royals  This on the day sailors are shot by a Saudi National at Pensacola.  Every aspect of the Saudi/US relationship is dumb.
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