United States

 This article by David Haggithwas first published on the Great Recession Blog: 

President Obama’s UN declaration that Israeli settlements are illegal says this duck isn’t lame. It was not the finale of Obama’s closing months as president but the prologue to years ahead, pushing his legacy to where it can be carried out at the UN. Congressional leaders say Obama is already plotting further action on Israel before he leaves office, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

As part of the "evidence" meant to substantiate the unprecedented act of expelling 35 Russian diplomats and locking down two Russian compounds without a major concurrent political or diplomatic incident, or an act of war, and which simply provides an outlets for the Democrats to justify the loss of their candidate in the US presidential election (sorry, Putin did not tell the rust belt how to vote), the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released a 13-page "report" on the Russian action done "to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S.

Having already made it clear that any sanctions would be met with retaliation, IFX reports that Russian Commissioner Foreign Ministry on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov exclaimed that "any anti-Russian sanctions are futile and counter-productive."

Via IFX (Google Translate)

Clearly unbothered by the lack of any evidence, and/or proof that Russia was indeed behind the "hacking" of the US elections as the government has alleged, outgoing president Obama who clears out of the White House in just over three weeks, issued the following statement in response to "Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment"

THE WHITE HOUSEOffice Of The Press Secretary

December 29, 2016

Statement by the President on Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and  Harassment

Submitted by David Yager via OilPrice.com,

Even with oil barely over half of what it fetched in June of 2014 and the active drilling rig count doing better than (December 20, 2016 – 257, December 16, 2014 – 420; source JWN Rig Locator) compared to two years ago, it is obviously reckless to declare next year a success while it hasn’t even started yet.