Sometimes I wonder if he's actually higher up than the people we think of as being his superiors by virtue of their positions in normal society. I remember reading somewhere that people in these weird secret societies who all look out and cover up for each other will often have a hierarchy that is not related to their positions in 'the real world.' So you might have someone who is a Judge or a Senior police officer for their day job, but really they answer to their superior in the secret society, whose day job might be cleaning public restrooms or selling pizzas etc.

I also remember thinking it seemed odd in the Podesta emails the way JA and JP spoke to each other. Like JP was always agreeable and would say yes to JA's requests, and JA's requests were very familiar and not at all deferent like you might expect from a small business owner who is asking a prominent and powerful political operator for a favour last minute.

So I think it is worth considering that, given that this secret 'culture' they exist within is something we are just not familiar with (thank God), we might be making erroneous assumptions about the positions of different members within the culture's social hierarchy. We assume their hierarchy mirrors the way they are positioned within society as a whole, but that very well might not be the case. Hillary and Bill Clinton might take orders from people behind the scenes that we barely even register or recognise. And it might be that way because the 'Big Cheeses' (Alefantis owns a company called the Big Cheese LLC in fact!) prefer a certain level of anonymity and freedom - you don't get much free time or opportunity to indulge in your sick hobbies without constant fear of exposure if you are a senior politician or campaign manager or chief of staff etc. Obviously there are also huge perks to those positions, especially for people who enjoy being in the limelight, but it seems as though people like JA are bestowed with many perks themselves - invites to the White House, lots of money, lots of parties and events with the rich and famous, being featured in GQ magazine, fancy vacations etc. So it is definitely a possibility that the higher-ups in these criminal organisations actually keep a relatively low profile day to day.

Of course it could run the risk of subordinates occupying positions of power in the 'real world' using that ostensible power to undermine their superiors, but then again when you consider that these networks are large and brutal, I expect fear or exposure and reprisals from other society members would keep that kind of thing in check.

So - I think we should not just assume that Alefantis is expendable or that the Clintons etc have the power in their secret circles to get rid of him. Of course it is also possible and probable that they do, but think it's worth keeping open minds about it, to ensure we don't miss anything.