Russia responded to President Obama’s sweeping sanctions by reportedly closing the Anglo-American School of Moscow, a facility for the children of American, British, and Canadian diplomats.

The order from the Russian government closes the diplomats’ school and the US embassy vacation house in Serebryany Bor, near Moscow, according to CNN.

The Anglo-American School of Moscow was founded in 1949 for children of embassy officials in Russia.

Students at the school are currently on winter break.

read more:

http://nypost.com/2016/12/29/russia-closes-american-school-in-retaliatio...

Ford served as British Ambassador to Bahrain in 1999-2003 and then as Ambassador to Syria, until he retired from UK’s diplomatic service in 2006. In recent years, he has become known as a vocal critic of UK policy in Syria. 

“What really strikes me is the hypocrisy of the American reaction, it’s so childish, it’s obvious sour grapes for having lost, for Clinton’s having lost the election,” Ford told RT, commenting on the array of anti-Russian sanctions announced by US President Barack Obama on Thursday in retaliation to the alleged hacking of US institutions and individuals which Washington attributes to the Russian government.  

read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/372214-obama-clinton-russia-sanctions-hypocricy/

The new anti-Moscow sanctions imposed by outgoing US President Barack Obama are meant to drive President-elect Donald Trump into corner regarding his policy toward Russia, Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump's campaign and will serve as his adviser, said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Obama announced the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, the closing of two Russian diplomatic compounds and new sanctions against six Russian individuals and five entities over Russia's alleged interference in most recent US presidential election.

"I will tell you that even those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to quote 'box in' President-elect Trump," Conway told CNN on Thursday. "That would be very unfortunate if politics were the motivating factor here. We can't help but think that's often true." US officials have accused Russia of being behind cyberattacks against the Democratic Party computer systems in an attempt to influence the November US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them absurd and characterizing them as an attempt to divert US public opinion from revelations of corruption as well as other pressing domestic issues. "All we heard through the election was 'Russia, Russia, Russia.' Since the election, it's just this fever pitch of accusations and insinuations," Conway said, adding that she did not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin "deterred her [Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton] from competing in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan."

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201612301049127966-obama-russia-sanctions-trump/

The whole shomoozle was an inside job of course but the Hillary camp won't want to admit it... Rather blame the Ruskies...

Popular conservative Web site the Drudge Report was shut down suddenly for 90 minutes Thursday night — and its editor hinted at shenanigans by the feds.

Matt Drudge, who has echoed Donald Trump’s skepticism about Russian hacking, tweeted that there was a denial-of-service attack, and wondered whether it was caused by the US government.

read more:

http://nypost.com/2016/12/30/drudge-report-shuts-down-suggests-us-govern...

Donald Trump’s incoming US administration will face an early test of its approach to Russia after Vladimir Putin declined to engage in tit-for-tat measures over the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, in what appeared to be an overture to the US president-elect.

Hours after the Russian foreign minster said he was recommending a symmetrical response, Putin said his country had every right to make such a move but that he would wait to see how relations developed under Trump.

“While we reserve the right to respond, we will not drop to this level of irresponsible diplomacy, and we will take further steps to help resurrect Russian-American relations based on the policies that the administration of Trump will pursue,” the Russian president said in a statement on the Kremlin website.

The statement also wished Obama and his family, Trump and the American people a happy new year and invited “all the children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas celebrations in the Kremlin”.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/30/russia-plans-immediate-cou...

Adding more embarrassment to President Barack Obama's final weeks in office, president-elect Donald Trump is now praising Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to hold off on retaliation over the new sanctions.

Trump also asserted on Twitter that he "always knew" that the Russian president is "very smart."

The lack of conflict between the two leaders has already shocked many in the US, as both parties seem eager to work towards a better relationship.

On Thursday, the US sanctioned six Russian individuals, including the head of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, as well as five entities. The US is also expelling 35 Russian diplomats, who now have 72 hours to leave the nation. Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump, has previously called retaliation by the Obama administration “a political response” at the behest of “Team Hillary," while the president-elect himself has expressed no interest in a conflict with the Kremlin.

On Friday, the Kremlin responded to US sanctions imposed on Thursday by declaring that they “will not resort to irresponsible ‘kitchen diplomacy,’” and reiterated their hopes to work toward a better relationship with the US when President-elect Trump takes office. “While we reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, we’re not going to downgrade ourselves to the level of irresponsible ‘kitchen’ diplomacy,” Putin announced. “In our future steps on the way toward the restoration of Russia-United States relations, we will proceed from the policy pursued by the administration of D. Trump.”

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/us/201612301049152737-trump-calls-putins-decision-great-move/

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has hit back at claims that authorities were planning to close an American school in Moscow in an act of retribution for wide-ranging U.S. measures against Russia, announced Thursday.

“US officials ‘anonymously informed’ their media that Russia closed the Anglo-American School in Moscow as a retaliatory measure,” she wrote in a Facebook post, which was later translated by the Russian state news agency TASS. “That’s a lie. Apparently, the White House has completely lost its senses and began inventing sanctions against its own children.”

CNN was one of the first news organizations to report the closure of the school, which is popular with the children of Western diplomats. The news was widely shared on social media.

read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/30/russia-slam...

Gus apologises profusely for having passed on the story of the closure of the schools (see above comments tits for his tats...). 

The decision was not an easy one, wrote Jan Chamberlin.

Ever since “the announcement” — as Chamberlin called it — she has “spent several sleepless nights and days in turmoil and agony,” she wrote in a Facebook post that was no longer public by Friday evening. “I have reflected carefully on both sides of the issue, prayed a lot, talked with family and friends, and searched my soul. I’ve tried to tell myself that by not going to the inauguration, that I would be able to stay in Choir for all the other good reasons.”

Ultimately, though, Chamberlin decided that she could not stay in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that Chamberlin, a singer in the famed group, is resigning after learning that the choir would appear at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/12/30/a-mormon...

Yes, one lonely singer makes the front page, while the three hundred other singers are cool about singing for Trump and don't get a single mention for it. Hey, the religious mobs voted for him for his stance on... on... on something...

Had forty singers resigned due to having to sing to Hillary's inauguration would not have rated a mention...

“It’s coming. He’s coming,” Holder said, speaking to reporters at a briefing for the new group. “And he’s ready to roll.”

Throughout, Holder said, Obama “will be a more visible part of the effort.”

Holder also predicted that the usual pattern of the party in the White House losing state legislative seats in off-year elections would hold next year, but “I expect we’ll see that on steroids with President Trump.”

The NDRC is looking to be an intensified central force for Democrats to tackle their disadvantage in gerrymandering. The mission is to direct resources into winning targeted state elections, push ballot initiatives for nonpartisan district-drawing commissions and wage legal challenges to existing maps. The hope is that this would put Democrats in a stronger position in state houses, but also in the U.S. House of Representatives, if districts are drawn that more accurately represent the distribution of the popular vote, citing statistics that showed Republicans winning 49 percent of the vote in those elections but getting 55 percent of the seats in the 2016 elections.

Marc Elias, a top election lawyer who’s advising the group, said that in addition to joining existing challenges to state laws, they’re already prospecting for states where they could file new lawsuits, predicting they’ll file more before the end of 2017. 

Holder acknowledged that the work in the courts has gotten more difficult with Jeff Sessions now in his old job running the Justice Department. He called the department’s decision to scrap a challenge to voter laws in Texas on Monday “disheartening,” but said that while “it would be good to have the Justice Department on our side … it doesn’t mean that the argument can’t be made, and can’t be made well.” 

“This is really a battle for our democracy,” Holder said. “The notion that people are denied their ability to cast a meaningful vote … is inconsistent with who we say we are, inconsistent with what we say our democracy is about.”

read more:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/eric-holder-obama-ready-public-235508

When Trump complained of the "system being rigged", no-one saw it coming: it was rigged in his favour and he (and Gus and Uncle Rupe) knew that. The journos of the liberal media were too engrossed in their demonising of him that they did not pay attention to what he REALLY was saying... They thought he was saying the election process was in favour of La Clinton... and loved it...

See toon at top...

The return of “Roseanne” brought working-class Midwesterners back into the TV fold and shook up an entertainment ecosystem dominated by coastal elites.

But Roseanne Barr, with her loudmouthed, racist tweet, wrecked any progress the show that bears her name made.

On Tuesday, Barr wrote a reprehensible post on Twitter, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” referring to Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is African-American. Hours later, her ABC comedy was rightly canceled, despite strong ratings and reviews.

With that one totally thoughtless tweet, Barr lost her job and destroyed her own, already rocky reputation. Worse yet, she obliterated any chance of getting more honest depictions of working-class Americans on TV.

“Roseanne”‘s detractors — who have spent the last several months seething over the show’s success — won’t learn an iota from its many achievements and huge ratings. Instead, networks will focus squarely on its star’s moral failures, and nix any middle-class stories that look an ounce like it going forward.

Much to the Left’s chagrin, “Roseanne” was the best TV revival so far: funny, moving and, above all else, unifying. It didn’t look like it was shot through an Instagram filter, it didn’t take place in a dystopian hellscape and there was nothing prestigious about it whatsoever. The Conners were a normal Midwestern family who went through genuine American struggles — living paycheck to paycheck, losing work and dealing with a cranky dinner table.

Roseanne’s sister Jackie, played by Laurie Metcalf, was a bitter Hillary voter who didn’t speak to her for months — but they managed to mend the fence. In one episode, her grandson enjoyed dressing up in women’s clothes. Roseanne was confused at first, but in the end the loving grandma protected him from bullies. “Roseanne” delivered what it promised.

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2018/05/29/hollywood-will-use-roseanne-as-an-excuse-t...

Ah, Roseanne why did you do it?... I know. You were showing the real America — the Yamerika that was not Obama's nor that of Clinton, but that of the "Deplorables", the forgotten people whose feet stink at the end of a long day in menial work — and they have little cash to buy "anythink"... Most of them would have voted for Bernie, but had to vote for Trump instead... Sad. Read from top...

And Hollywood stinks far more than the feet of those "deplorables"... Meanwhile, the evangelical pastors are having a hard time holding on to an olive branch...:

Two weeks after Willow Creek Community Church's elder board apologized for initially brushing off several women's sexual misconduct accusations against founder Bill Hybels as lies, some of the pastor's most vocal accusers have rejected an independent conciliation effort offered by the megachurch as an olive branch.

"The elders have said publicly that they are trying to reach out and 'care for the women' involved. But what would true caring look like? In my view, this is not the time to enter into any kind of reconciliation process. That is grossly premature. As I have said in prior statements, truth finding must precede reconciliation," Nancy Beach, Willow Creek Community Church's first female teaching pastor, wrote in part in a blog post on Friday.

"The narrative they are putting forward is that this is all about a 'dispute' between the Willow leaders and former members that needs to be resolved. Fundamentally, that is not what this is about. It's about an abusive pastor and church leadership who have not adequately investigated his behavior, have not named it as sin, and have failed to confront and address it, calling for consequences for Bill Hybels," added Beach, who had reported Hybels to elders in August 2016, for inappropriate conversations and a hug during a trip to Spain.

Read more:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/willow-creek-hires-independent-firm-t...

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balm_in_Gilead