The shocking, if real, entertaining and ambitious if not, Donald Trump dossier allegedly compiled by The Company, a/k/a C.I.A.

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

It's hard to know if this is real (they did a great job of making it *seem* real), but you can download, or read, a 35 page PDF of the "Trump Dossier" (purportedly compiled by The Company, a/k/a CIA).  If it is real, and not a red herring created by the Kremlin, wow.  It's hard to know if this is real because you keep shaking your head, saying "this can't possibly be true."

Warning: includes possibly offensive short passages detailing orgies and other sexual behavior. It's no coincidence that "golden showers" is trending today on Internet searches and hashtags. Just Google golden showers

You can read or download the PDF here. 

I responded to DJT's tweet on this being Fake News:

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The Kremlin Clock Tower

By Jack Brummet, Russian Travel Editor

The 500 year old Kremlin Clock (Russian: Кремлёвские часы; Kremlyovskiye chasy) is an often rebuilt clock on Spasskaya Tower in The Kremlin. The clock dial is above the main gates leading into Red Square. The clock chimes on the quarter hour, and bells toll each full hour.  According to various historical accounts, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower appeared between 1491 and 1585.  It has been tinkered with, rebuilt, music added, clockworks re-engineered, and of course, the clock dials have been updated, re-gilded, and more. 

It was pretty cool seeing it in person, although there were so many other fantastic buildings, churches, and sculptures that it almost becomes lost among all the other great sights.  I remember when I was young, they would often show the clock tower in reports on The Kremlin (our cold war enemies).  U.S. News, however, would more often show some grim, great Soviet building (there are only a couple of that style)--they almost never showed the great churches or towers.

 

The four Kremlin clock faces are 20 feet in diameter, with one on all four sides of the tower. The Roman numerals are two and a half feet tall.  The length of the hour hand is nearly ten feet, and of the minute hand nearly eleven feet. The total weight of clock and bells is 25 tons (or about 1/8 the weight of the gigantic Czar Bell on the plaza.  

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Ring my bell: The Tsar Bell/Царь–колокол (and one more Russian "biggest ever)"

By Jack Brummet, Kremlin Editor

The Tsar/Czar's Bell is 20 feet tall and sits on a little stone pedestal on the Kremlin grounds.  It was commissioned by Peter the Great's niece,  Empress Anna Ivanovna.  It was broken while they casted the bronze, and has never been rung. It weighs nearly 200 tons.  That broken chunk you see resting on it weights eleven tons itself.

The bell was cracked when there was a fire with the superstructure (which was wooden) while it was being tempered and decorated.  After a year or so of cooling, the fire broke out in 1737.  The guards poured water onto the bell and structure in order to save it.   The water caused 11 cracks in the bell, and the chink you see broke off.

For some period of time, the bell actually served as a chapel; you walked in through the doorway created by the cracked section.  And it has sat in the same spot on the Kremlin grounds for 260 years.  Naturally, like with their world's largest cannon, it's the biggest and baddest ever.  But is it a bell if it is still unrung?

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The Czar's Cannon in The Kremlin

 By Jack Brummet, Russian Travel Editor

The Czar's cannon, a 40 ton machine, was mostly, they say, created to spook the enemy.  No one knows for sure, but it was probably fired once (a 1980 study found traces of gunpowder).  It was build in the 16th century of 100% brass and is over 17 feet long.   The cannon could not actually shoot the one ton balls sitting in front.  They were also created to spook the enemy.  The cannon probably shot a load of smaller balls.  Compared to cannons I've seen in the U.S. and other countries, it is elaborately decorated, including an elaborate equestrian carving of a Czar.  Our guide said that Napoleon Bonaparte considered taking the cannon back to France as swag after the French invasion of Russia.

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Alien Lore No. 165 - UFO Hovers Over The Kremlin

[Thanks to Jeff Clinton for suggesting this story]

The hottest video on the Russian YouTube site is film of an alleged UFO hovering over the Kremlin. Some say the triangular craft could be up to a mile in length. As you see in the video clips below, it has been seen in both daylight, and at night.

Russia has become a hotbed in recent years of UFO news, UFO records and investigations made public, and indeed. . .numerous purported alien craft sightings. . .

The video clips, probably shot from a passing car, have gone viral, particularly in the former Soviet Union.









Nick Pope, who has worked on MoD's UFO Desk [ed's note: MoD is the British Ministry of Defense] for three years, called it "one of the most extraordinary UFO clips I've ever seen."\
He said: "At first I thought this was a reflection, but it appears to move behind a power line, ruling out this theory."

Web theorists suggested an air balloon or stunt, but a spokesman for aerospace experts Jane's News said: "We have no idea what it is."




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