The lame duck quacks: Today's news for December 30th

Fox News:

Putin spokesman says Russia weighs retaliation after sanctions

The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Moscow will consider retaliatory measures following the new round of U.S. sanctions put in place by President Obama.

Russia also continued to deny accusations by the U.S. that it hacked and stole emails in order to aide in Trump’s win. Trump commented on the matter saying the U.S. should move on. Trump is planning on meeting with U.S. intelligence leaders next week to learn more.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the measures signal Obama’s “unpredictable” and “aggressive foreign policy.”

The spokesman added that Putin would order “appropriate” retaliation for the sanctions.

In the first place, we have yet to see any proof that Russia did what they are being accused of doing. (See this post for the problems with the accusations against Russia.)

Even if they did do it, this action isn't an action taken by the U.S. It is an action taken by a lame duck administration controlled by a party which just lost the election. In other words, this is an aggressive action taken by the Democratic Party against the sovereign nation of Russia, and in no way represents what the majority of Americans want. It is international sour grapes, taking out their disappointment on anyone and everyone, including Russia.

It will be nice to have the brats out of Washington come January 20th.

By the way, here is yet another reason why Russia probably didn't do it:

The Atlantic:

How Trump Made Russia's Hacking More Effective

Sometimes, the Leftist media walks right past the reason they are wrong. The above article unintentionally gives a very valid reason why Russia would not have committed the hacking, or at least not been directly responsible for it:

Vladimir Putin took a fearful risk. If the Electoral College had taken a slightly different bounce on November 8, Putin would now be facing an enraged President-elect Hillary Clinton. Putin had every reason to expect that he probably would end up facing a President Clinton. Yet he took the gamble anyway, apparently doing something none of his Soviet predecessors had ever dared to do: mount a clandestine espionage and disinformation campaign on behalf of one candidate for U.S. president, and against another.

With a high risk of getting caught, and with a high probability of it not working anyway, why would Putin do it? If anything, this proves he didn't have a motive. While Putin may have wanted Trump to win, he had a strong disincentive for taking any kind of action, even clandestine action. The risk/reward factor made it prohibitively expensive.