Maintaining Appearances,
Eleni sends this article by James Petras, The Coup Against Trump. (This is one way of presenting the elite power struggle for the reins of empire, between the Neocons and a faction I've been referring to as the "Rationalists". My read is that Zbigniew Brzezinski withdrew the intellectual foundation for the "unipolar world" model this spring when he published his paper that the time had already passed, and declared the idea no-longer-possible. Kissinger is still on Kissinger's side, and quite comfortable with Trump, Russia, and China... "Bye bye, Hillary, dear.")
President Obama keeps the "Big Lie" alive, by kicking Russia out of a couple of vacation compounds they own in New York and Maryland, and expelling 35 Russian "Diplomats" (All "diplomats" are "spies", everywhere, some more than others.) The Russians had been monitoring the NSA (which monitors the Russians monitoring them, and everybody else, of course.)
Pay no attention to Hillary Clinton stealing the Democratic Primary, as revealed in the leaked-not-hacked emails from the DNC.
Russia Stole The Election!
Russian sources say that this behavior by the Obama administration is irrational, meant to permanently break US/Russia relations, just ahead of an administration that sees the value in repairing them. This parting-shot will be answered, appropriately, in due time, and with respect to the identities and intentions of the actual instigators. (Vladimir Putin is no fool, and is competent in Judo, as well as Chess. These aggressive acts against Russia, without any proof to support US allegations, reflect very poorly on the current US administration. They appear desperate and petty.)
Vladimir Putin: "We will not expel anyone. We refuse to sink to Obama's level."
Russia has the right to respond in tit-for-tat manner, but it will not engage in irresponsible diplomacy.
"It is regrettable that the Obama administration, which started out by restoring our ties, is ending its term in an anti-Russia death throes. RIP," Dmitri Medvedev, who served as president in 2009 when Obama tried to improve Russia-U.S. relations, wrote on his official Facebook page.
There has been speculation that an electronic jamming cyber attack was the cause of the Christmas crash of Russian Tu-154 passenger plane, taking an orchestra and dignitaries to Syria to cheer up the troops. (Hard to know...)
"Noteworthy, disabled transponders and communication systems can be explained as follows. French reconnaissance ship Dupuy de Lome had entered the Black Sea on the eve of the tragedy. The ship can send a strong impulse to deactivate all electronic equipment on board the aircraft. Israel resorts to this practice against Russian airplanes in Syria. It was reported that the bodies of the victims of the Tu-154 crash were wearing life jackets. Therefore, the crew had time to warn the passengers, but not the flight control officers. In this is the case, then this is a war against NATO, rather than an act of terrorism." -http://www.pravdareport.com/hotspots/disasters/27-12-2016/136527-tu_154_crash-0/#sthash.XSOJ1U4o.dpuf
Mass graves of tortured civilians are unearthed in "fallen" East Aleppo.
Syrian and Russian troops reportedly moved forward with all due haste, since they knew this was being done by moderate-90%-foreign-mercenary-democratic-freedom-fighter-good-guys.
In the latest snub to the Obama administration, a nationwide Syrian cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey - one which explicitly avoided US participation - went into effect at midnight and was holding steady on Friday despite minor violations, marking what Bloomberg said is "a potential breakthrough in a conflict that has been shredding high-level peace initiatives for over five years."
Oliver Stone has insights into the "Fake News" propaganda we are all getting from the Washington Post, New York Times and other "mainstream media".
Who needs "facts" when you've got "authority"?
Stone demonstrates that he remains fixated on reality, how 20th Century!
A federal judge declares that the security-breech investigation against former Secretary of State Clinton must proceed. There are limited legal circumstances in which it might be concluded, and those conditions do not currently apply.
Wikileaks is dying to say who leaked the DNC files, which opened Pizzagate and revealed the DNC/Clintonistas stole the primary from Bernie Sanders.
Their informant may already have died. Seth Rich was mysteriously murdered as he walked down a street one night, following the leaks.
Julian Assange discussed this death in an interview, without specifically saying that Seth Rich had been in any contact at all with Wikileaks.
There are ways to discover if Rich was in the same place at the same time as Wikileaks envoy and former UK Ambassador, Craig Murray. (Of course team Clinton would have known that kind of thing long ago...)
A Federal Judge has ordered the full 7,000 page Senate "Torture Report" research paper to be preserved. It looked into CIA torture and rendition of people they called "suspects", without any due process and outside of the laws of all nations involved. It's still secret, of course...
Openly-Secret