2016 Presidential Race

[Tom B.]

Good lord- have we entered Bond villain territory?

You say that in jest, but...

The Hill: Spy told FBI that Russia wants to cultivate Trump: report

I saw the the source report from Mother Jones earlier this evening, but didn't want to link it because I wasn't sure if Mother Jones was considered a "partisan publication," which might violate the board's rules. But now it's being picked up by mainstream outlets, so here's the original Mother Jones article:

A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump

And just for good measure, there's this:

NBC News: FBI Making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager's Foreign Ties (This is about Manafort.)

Put it all together, and James Comey is one busy dude.

[BandAlum83]

So Slate has done some pretty impressive investigative work and uncovered something that seems really, really troubling. But, I think it is such a complicated and technical story, I doubt the American people will be able to understand it.

Slate has spoken to some data scientists who believe they have discovered a secret line of communication between a server used by Donald Trump and one of Russia's biggest banks with close ties to Putin. As I said, it is a complicated story, but it seems pretty well fact-checked to me.



Slate is careful not to jump to conclusions, but it is not hard to connect the dots here. It is also not hard to leap to wild conspiracy theories that have no evidence backing them up. But, it really does look like there was a direct, secret email link between a server owned by Donald Trump and one based at a highly placed Russian bank. Beyond that, lots of questions and no clear answers.

-Jason "there's just no way the public has the attention span to understand this... sigh" Evans

Thanks for posting about this, Jason. I've been reading the story and didn't have the energy to analyze and post. This is hitting MSM, but it is complex, odd, difficult to follow and troubling.

2989

[-jk]

Not to dismiss the potential significance of the rest, but:



There's nothing strange or wrong with setting up a server to communicate only with select addresses or on select ports. Why would they assume it's an open mail server? Properly setting up a secure server should mean blacklisting/whitelisting addresses. That is a bizarre and misleading characterization. I'll have to read through the whole article to see if there's some more context to that quote.

Blacklisting is common - there are tons of spam sites, and tons of free services to make blacklisting them easy - everyone (except the spam sites) wants it to be easy. Whitelisting is done only by thoughtful choice. Please don't conflate them.

-jk

[Tom B.]

So, however you look at Comey's announcement about re-opening the investigation, there's no denying that it presents the Trump campaign with an opportunity. Naturally, in their continuing attempt to illustrate how not to run a campaign, Team Trump goes all in...Mormon bashing Evan McMullin. Lou Dobbs (not officially part of the campaign, but certainly part of the Hannity/Coulter/Ingraham media cheer squad) accused McMullin of being part of a "Mormon mafia". The comes this tweet from part of the actual campaign staff...

https://mobile.twitter.com/paxdickin...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

"Hey, team, this McMullin character might actually win Utah! We need those Electoral College votes! We gotta win Utah! Tell ya what, let's attack Mormons!"

If nothing else, this campaign team is unconventional...

And the hashtag "#MormonMafia" is trending on Twitter, with predictably hilarious results.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0990edc2f34fb

[BLPOG]

You say that in jest, but...

The Hill: Spy told FBI that Russia wants to cultivate Trump: report

I saw the the source report from Mother Jones earlier this evening, but didn't want to link it because I wasn't sure if Mother Jones was considered a "partisan publication," which might violate the board's rules. But now it's being picked up by mainstream outlets, so here's the original Mother Jones article:

A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump

And just for good measure, there's this:

NBC News: FBI Making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager's Foreign Ties (This is about Manafort.)

Put it all together, and James Comey is one busy dude.

Lest anyone forget, the Democrats wanted to cultivate Trump, too. What a popular guy!

[BLPOG]

Blacklisting is common - there are tons of spam sites, and tons of free services to make blacklisting them easy - everyone (except the spam sites) wants it to be easy. Whitelisting is done only by thoughtful choice. Please don't conflate them.

-jk

You're right about whitelisting, but what I'm getting at is, what do we really know about the server? There are plausible reasons to communicate with only a few select systems, which is why I found that other comment so odd.

I've read through the rest of the article now and it definitely seems fishy that these two servers were communicating, especially the DNS lookup after the changed hostname. Still too early to read much into it. I thought the article went a little overboard with the conspiracy angle and got a couple of technical points wrong (although maybe the phrasing was just ambiguous) but even so it was pretty informative.

[-jk]

You're right about whitelisting, but what I'm getting at is, what do we really know about the server? There are plausible reasons to communicate with only a few select systems, which is why I found that other comment so odd.

I've read through the rest of the article now and it definitely seems fishy that these two servers were communicating, especially the DNS lookup after the changed hostname. Still too early to read much into it. I thought the article went a little overboard with the conspiracy angle and got a couple of technical points wrong (although maybe the phrasing was just ambiguous) but even so it was pretty informative.

OK, I'm a house IT geek around here... Which technical points do you think they got wrong - or ambiguous? It seemed a pretty clear explanation to me.

-jk

[JasonEvans]

The New York Times continues to work the Trump income tax story. They now say Trump avoided paying tens of millions in taxes by using a tax loophole that his accountant said would almost certainly be disallowed if he were audited.

Tax experts who reviewed documents for The Times said Mr. Trump trampled a core tax policy tenet by receiving tax benefits for losing vast amounts of other people’s money.

While Trump and some of his businesses were in the throes of financial turmoil in the 1990s, Trump pressured investors to forgive millions of dollars in debt that he could not repay at the time. In doing so, the forgiven debt would have been viewed as taxable income, based on IRS provisions.

-Jason "Trump is a pretty smart businessman if he figured out a way to lose other people's money and get a tax break for it" Evans

[BLPOG]

OK, I'm a house IT geek around here... Which technical points do you think they got wrong - or ambiguous? It seemed a pretty clear explanation to me.

-jk

For example, the comment near the end about DNS traffic:

Furthermore, there’s no such thing as “regular” DNS server traffic, at least not according to the computer scientists I consulted. The very reason DNS exists is to enable email and other means of communication.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the author's objection, but...of course there is such a thing as "regular" DNS server traffic - that's what DNS requests are...

[davekay1971]

Meanwhile, the Hillary Clinton twitter account may have provided one of the more unintentionally funny moments of an unintentionally funny campaign...

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

[pfrduke]

Meanwhile, the Hillary Clinton twitter account may have provided one of the more unintentionally funny moments of an unintentionally funny campaign...

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Sometimes you just have to own the criticism, I guess.

[pfrduke]

Meanwhile, the Hillary Clinton twitter account may have provided one of the more unintentionally funny moments of an unintentionally funny campaign...

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/s...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Sometimes you just have to own the criticism, I guess.

Having now clicked through to the linked Slate article, it's more intentionally funny than unintentionally. But I'm sure the distinction will be lost on many people who (like me originally) don't click through.

[pfrduke]

I was filling out my ballot tonight (Washington does vote by mail, which is a wonderful way to vote) and had occasion to consult the local voters' pamphlet for information on several initiatives and candidates. Although I did not need them to inform my vote, I was curious and checked the statements included by the candidates for President from the two major parties. I present them here without editorial comment, in the order in which they appear in the pamphlet:

Our campaign is based on the notion that Americans are stronger together. We're stronger when everyone can contribute to the economy and share in its growth. We're stronger when we work with each other - and with allies around the world - to keep America secure. And we're stronger when we're united, not divided; when we come together to overcome the challenges we face.

If we win this November, in our first 100 days, we'll make the biggest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II. We'll invest in infrastructure, manufacturing, and small businesses. We'll make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century to take on the threat of climate change, and create jobs in the process. And we'll pay for our plans by making Wall Street, corporations, and the super-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.

We'll make college debt-free for all and tuition-free for the middle class, while helping millions of people with student debt. We'll crack down on companies that ship jobs overseas, and we'll reward companies that share profits with their employees. We'll create policies that help people balance work and family. And we'll bring opportunity to communities that have been left out and left behind.

Beyond the economy, we'll take on other urgent challenges - from reforming our broken criminal justice and immigration systems to ending the epidemic of gun violence to getting unaccountable money out of politics.

Americans aren't just electing a president; we're also choosing a Commander-in-Chief. We've laid out a comprehensive strategy to keep America safe by defeating ISS, standing with our allies, and respecting those who serve our country.

We know that America's best days are still ahead of us. When Americans come together, there's nothing we can't do. That's what our campaign is all about.

Donald J. Trump is the very definition of the American success story, continually setting the standards of excellence while expanding his interests in real estate, sports and entertainment. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance. An accomplished author, Mr. Trump has authored over 15 bestsellers, and his first book, "The Art of the Deal," is considered a business classic and one of the most successful business books of all time.

As the Republican Presidential nominee with a record number of votes in the primary season, Mr. Trump has over 20 million followers on social media, and devotes much of his time to media interviews in order to advocate for tougher law enforcement, stopping illegal immigration and bringing back jobs so we can Make America Great Again. He also believes strongly that we mustpromote [sic.] a free market, rebuild our military, and maintain our country's sacred obligation to take care of our veterans and their families.

Mr. Trump has long been a supporter of veteran causes, raising millions of dollars for veterans. In 1996, Mr. Trump was honored in the Pentagon during a lunch with the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for working as Grand Marshal of the 1996 annual New York City Veterans Day Parade that drew 25,000 veterans marching in front of an audience of 1.4 million viewers, up from approximately 100 the year before.

In New York City, the Trump signature is synonymous with the most prestigious of addresses, among them the world-renowned Fifth Avenue skyscraper, Trump Tower-and [sic.] his ever-expanding collection of award-winning golf courses (18 thus far in the U.S. and worldwide).

Mr. Trump is married to Melania Knauss, has five beautiful children including Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany and Barron, and eight grandchildren.

[bedeviled]

Regarding the Slate article about a secret Trump server communicating with the Russian bank:
The WHOIS search linked in the article shows the domain administrator as Emily McMullin of Cedyn...with a registrant's email as emcmullin@cendyn.com. The chosen registration name was "Trump Orgainzation" (note the misspelling).

Who is this mysterious Emily McMullin and Cedyn? It's a marketing and sales company in the hospitality industry and is located in Boca Raton and Atlanta. In addition to Trump properties, it's clients include Best Western, Hyatt, Marriott, Biltmore, Golden Nugget, etc. Yes, the domain registration address is the Trump Tower (along with the misspelled organization - which is also misspelled in other Cedyn registrations for Cedyn's Trump-related ventures, but not in registrations done by the actual Trump organization), but the administrator/Cedyn is listed as being located in Boca Raton. The super sleuths didn't report on whether or not they traced the IP address. DNS trails data shows no IP address for the trump-email.com domain. trump-email.com is not even a server. Instead, it's a domain that redirects traffic to/from Cedyn (incoming.cdcservices.com). The assosicated Cedyn IP addresses appear to geolocate to Florida and Georgia (ie not Trump Tower).

So what was the communication? It could have been a secret code of communication through DNS lookups. Or, it could be DNS queries in response to a malware, bot, or spam mailserver. Well, the story says that the server was first registered in 2009 and was set up to run consumer marketing campaigns. So, it used to send out spam. What about now? When the authors contacted another party receiving communication from the setup, Spectrum Health, that party investigated and replied:

Our experts have conducted a detailed analysis of the alleged internet traffic and did not find any evidence that it included any actual communications (no emails, chat, text, etc.) between Spectrum Health and Alfa Bank or any of the Trump organizations. While we did find a small number of incoming spam marketing emails, they originated from a digital marketing company, Cendyn, advertising Trump Hotels.

So, it used to be spam. And, now it's spam. And, it's coming from Cendyn, a third-party company that provides hospitality marketing on behalf of hotels such as Trump's. Basically, Cendyn is spamming out hotel marketing stuff, and the bank computer system responds with a DNS request which is unfulfilled. The NYT called the bank and the communication stopped - spy thriller or blacklisting spam? The Slate article makes a number of conjectures (if not mistakes).

In response to the story, Sam Biddle of The Intercept tweeted that at least 5 media outlets had been looking at the information for at least a month and didn't submit stories because "it didn't add up." He also tweeted, "The Trump/Alfa story *could* be true, but we all looked at the same data Foer did and it just won't take you to that conclusion."

So it looks like either multiple outlets happened upon the same oddities as our Slate supersleuths, or someone was shopping the info around. The inquiry even made it FBI who have investigated. Here's the NY Times article entitled "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia":

In classified sessions in August and September, intelligence officials also briefed congressional leaders on the possibility of financial ties between Russians and people connected to Mr. Trump. They focused particular attention on what cyberexperts said appeared to be a mysterious computer back channel between the Trump Organization and the Alfa Bank, which is one of Russia’s biggest banks and whose owners have longstanding ties to Mr. Putin.

F.B.I. officials spent weeks examining computer data showing an odd stream of activity to a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank. Computer logs obtained by The New York Times show that two servers at Alfa Bank sent more than 2,700 “look-up” messages — a first step for one system’s computers to talk to another — to a Trump-connected server beginning in the spring. But the F.B.I. ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts.

A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump [The Hill and Mother Jones articles]

FBI Making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager's Foreign Ties (This is about Manafort.) [MSNBC article]

Lots of Russia, Russia, Russia today! BTW, was anyone following HRC's Twitter today? The NY Times article includes those topics as well.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

...The inquiry even made it FBI who have investigated. Here's the NY Times article entitled "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia":

I am just surprised that the FBI hasn't released a letter announcing the ongoing investigation into Trump's potential or hypothetical connections to Russia...

(Ducks)

[BandAlum83]

It felt kinda surreal to be in a 2 hour voting line in shorts and short sleeve shirt with temps in the 80's.

And no questions on climate change during the debates.

[BandAlum83]

3000

[Furniture]

How long will this thread last after 7 days though?

[-jk]

For example, the comment near the end about DNS traffic:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the author's objection, but...of course there is such a thing as "regular" DNS server traffic - that's what DNS requests are...

I think they mean human DNS traffic is always reactive to something, not just random, background noise.

-jk

[OldPhiKap]

Sometimes you just have to own the criticism, I guess.

Self-awareness is a sign of maturity.