It drives me insane! I have really tried to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on certain extreme positions, like Muslims, "The Wall", and even torture... After changing his rhetoric and moving slightly towards sanity, last night he brought a lot of people back to square-one by again stating that he wants to do "Worse, much worse than water-boarding". ???
This election is starting to give me a feeling of deja-vu. You know, when suddenly all of your excitement and passion about the electoral process is extinguished, and you realize that once again you are either choosing evil or voting green-party?
As a somewhat decent human being, I just can't write this off. Of course, Trump would never actually be able to implement those policies, but the fact that it's what he wants to do is disturbing. Trump, if you seriously want to win this election, and if you're seriously not just playing some weird game, than you need to clarify some things immediately:
- Acknowledge that torture is bad, mmkay? Apologize for scaring the crap out of half the country by even considering it.
- Pledge to protect internet freedoms and promise to never consider "shutting down the internet in some of 'those places'" again. If you don't understand that the open & free internet is the only thing that enabled you to get this far, when the media was smearing you left and right, than I don't know what to tell you.
- Change your position on banning all Muslims from entering the country. It's just never going to fly, and Muslims, like the rest of us, are people. Theres' good ones and bad ones.
- Tone down The Wall. Roger Waters must be beside himself right now.
Saying these ridiculous things only benefits Hillary Clinton, surely you must see that? (I am so confused right now LOL ... )
If you can do all of that, and if Hillary gets the nomination, and if Bernie fades away, than there's still a chance I'd vote for you. I do believe I'm not the only one that feels this frustrating moral dilemma...
We need to do away with political parties and start working together as The People. Left or Right, I think everyone agrees that the establishment has got to go. If you're wondering why someone that loves Bernie also can't help liking certain things about Trump, it's because I think that people will never agree completely, and there are valid, powerful messages coming from both sides. Wouldn't it be great if we could work together to put our differences aside and reclaim our nation with unity?
"So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause"
Friday, April 29, 2016
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Twist: Clinton Even Bit-Flips Controversy Away?
Earlier today I made an interesting find. There is a website, wontvotehillary.com where people sign a pledge not to vote for her, under any circumstances. While showing this to a friend, he accidentally typed in wontvotehilary.com, forgetting the second l. The domain resolved to what appeared to be some type of malicious website, and he quickly exited the page. This is an attack called key-squatting that takes advantage of mistyped or misspelled domain names to direct the client's query to an unintended destination server with a similar domain. Typically this is done for nefarious reasons, sometimes for ip-address harvesting, but usually to serve malicious JavaScript code
Further investigating the issue, I discovered another one, but this time it looked like a site possibly being prepped for a bitsquat attack. Initially I anonymously notified the author. Next I enumerated all of the possible bit or key squats and checked to see which are currently registered. Out of 396 potential similar domains, two were active. (Links don't go to the sites themselves, rather to shodan):
Original* wontvotehillary.com 208.113.222.56 (real site)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Omission wontvotehilary.com 174.137.132.28 (keyflip or 'typo' attack site)
Subdomain wontvoteh.illary.com 198.64.249.65 keyflip with bitsqat potential ?)
Turns out that the same thing is happening for superdelagatelist.com , which is a website where constituents can get in touch with their super delegates and try to tell them to vote the way that the people vote in their states:
Original* superdelegatelist.com 208.113.223.13
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitsquatting superdelagatelist.com 141.8.224.93
Subdomain super.delegatelist.com 178.79.174.192
Subdomain superdele.gatelist.com 104.130.124.96 (cloudfare, go figure)
Subdomain superdelega.telist.com 72.52.4.119
Subdomain superdelegate.list.com 141.8.224.183
Subdomain superdelegatel.ist.com 109.235.170.97
And what do you know, looks like berniesanders.com could also be targeted...
Original* berniesanders.com 104.16.42.58
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitsquatting ferniesanders.com 192.64.119.18
Bitsquatting barniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Bitsquatting burniesanders.com 168.235.79.101
Bitsquatting berniesandars.com 50.63.202.39
Homoglyph berniesamders.com 185.53.177.7
Homoglyph bermiesanders.com 141.8.224.183
Homoglyph berniesandlers.com 141.8.224.93
Hyphenation bernie-sanders.com 104.131.97.43
Insertion berniewsanders.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion brerniesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion bereniesanders.com 103.224.182.226
Insertion berniersanders.com 158.69.143.80
Insertion berniesandeers.com 141.8.224.93
Insertion beerniesanders.com 184.168.221.60
Insertion berniesansders.com 141.8.224.93
Insertion berniesanderes.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion berniessanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission berniesandrs.com 141.8.224.93
Omission berniesandes.com 185.53.177.7
Omission beniesanders.com 51.254.28.161
Omission beriesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Omission bernesanders.com 192.64.147.196
Omission erniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission bernisanders.com 199.59.243.120
Omission berniesander.com 50.63.202.17
Omission berniesaders.com 185.53.177.7
Omission brniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission bernieanders.com 199.59.243.120
Omission berniesaners.com 74.208.178.101
Omission berniesnders.com 141.8.224.93
Repetition bberniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Repetition bernniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement berniessnders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement beeniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesandrrs.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesabders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement betniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement bernirsanders.com 185.53.177.7
Replacement berniesandera.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement berbiesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement verniesanders.com 184.168.221.39
Replacement bernuesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesandwrs.com 54.72.9.51
Replacement bernoesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniwsanders.com 185.53.177.8
Replacement berniedanders.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement nerniesanders.com 54.72.9.51
Replacement bernissanders.com 141.8.224.169
Subdomain b.erniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Subdomain be.rniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Subdomain berni.esanders.com 208.73.210.217
Subdomain berniesa.nders.com 98.124.245.24
Subdomain berniesan.ders.com 98.124.199.24
Transposition benriesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Transposition berinesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Transposition berneisanders.com 185.53.177.7
Transposition berniesnaders.com 141.8.224.93
Transposition berniesandres.com 185.53.179.9
Various wwwberniesanders.com 185.53.178.6
And just for static record, here are dig queries of the domains as of last night:
This attack is possible due to incontrollable circumstances such as cosmic rays, excessive heat, poor quality RAM or capacitors, and other unpredictable environmental phenomenons affecting computer memory. Defcon had a presentation on DNS bitflipping (which you should watch if you want to understand the attack), which is what it would appear that her campaign may be doing. Basically, an anomaly occurs in memory, and characters that are digitally similar on the ASCII chart can become different characters, provided the computer, for whatever reason, reads the data incorrectly. Related, from the wiki page, this is how a bit flip attack works:
A bit-flipping attack is an attack on a cryptographic cipher in which the attacker can change the ciphertext in such a way as to result in a predictable change of the plaintext, although the attacker is not able to learn the plaintext itself. Note that this type of attack is not—directly—against the cipher itself (as cryptanalysis of it would be), but against a particular message or series of messages. In the extreme, this could become a Denial of service attack against all messages on a particular channel using that cipher.[1]
The attack is especially dangerous when the attacker knows the format of the message. In such a situation, the attacker can turn it into a similar message but one in which some important information is altered. For example, a change in the destination address might alter the message route in a way that will force re-encryption with a weaker cipher, thus possibly making it easier for an attacker to decipher the message.
When applied to digital signatures, the attacker might be able to change a promissory note stating "I owe you $10.00" into one stating "I owe you $10000".
Or from "wontvotehillary.com" to "wontvoteh.illary.com"..? In this case it's plain text DNS that's affected rather than cryptographic errors. This type of error can occur on either the client machine, or somwhere along the route, probably at the dns server. For more information, see this. I am not sure if character additions happen in bit errors, but I wouldn't doubt that's possible. Even if not, than it certainly has key squat potential, but with a lower probably of a hit than from the missing "l" domain.
For obvious reasons, I did not want to look much more into it beyond that. The point is, first it was million dollar trolls going after Bernie supporters. Now this suggests there is more under the surface, and perhaps that the Secretary is less "for us" than she claims. If she indeed has a cyber mercenary force working with her campaign, than that is disturbing. Imagine what she would do as president, armed with the NSA? Ask yourself, who else stands to gain from trying to pull off this kind of sophisticated attack? To be fair, it is possible, although unlikely, that these domains were registered by someone else, whom has no affiliation with her campaign, perhaps a security researcher.
Couple this with the Sanders facebook groups vanishing due to hilltrolls plastering porn all of them or something, and the fact that she (and Trump, disappointingly) also mocked the concept of free speech on the internet, and you've got a recipe for disaster. I guess that we know #WhichHillary won this week. Now you should have little doubt that she will censor and manipulate our internet. Since you're at this blog, I assume that internet freedom is somewhat important to you. Bernie is for the internet. Alas, at least Trump said "We need to talk to Bill Gates and some of these people that reallt know what's happening ..." before claiming we may have to "shut down the internet in some of the places." That shows Trump is quite oldschool and rather ill-informed on technology. The only silver lining is that he is admitting that he needs to talk to someone that knows something, even if he's confused about whom that may be. Besides, I would like to think that Gates would tell Trump that he's wrong. Hillary appears to have already started attacking the internet. She can't earn our respect, she can't magically erase public record, and she can't get away with flip-flopping policies as easily these days. Instead of trying to earn our votes, she hired an army of trolls to make it look like she has inspired the people. I'm sorry Madam Secretary, but you simply cannot buy passion. These people are incredibly easy to spot on the net. They're aura of inauthenticity is blatantly obvious, even after radiating through thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable.
So that's just one more reason why you should probably sign the pledge on the real site, http://wontvotehillary.com . I was going to write a boring blog about how Hillary Clinton made me dislike Hillary Clinton, but than she pretty much made the case for me.
Further investigating the issue, I discovered another one, but this time it looked like a site possibly being prepped for a bitsquat attack. Initially I anonymously notified the author. Next I enumerated all of the possible bit or key squats and checked to see which are currently registered. Out of 396 potential similar domains, two were active. (Links don't go to the sites themselves, rather to shodan):
Original* wontvotehillary.com 208.113.222.56 (real site)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Omission wontvotehilary.com 174.137.132.28 (keyflip or 'typo' attack site)
Subdomain wontvoteh.illary.com 198.64.249.65 keyflip with bitsqat potential ?)
Turns out that the same thing is happening for superdelagatelist.com , which is a website where constituents can get in touch with their super delegates and try to tell them to vote the way that the people vote in their states:
Original* superdelegatelist.com 208.113.223.13
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitsquatting superdelagatelist.com 141.8.224.93
Subdomain super.delegatelist.com 178.79.174.192
Subdomain superdele.gatelist.com 104.130.124.96 (cloudfare, go figure)
Subdomain superdelega.telist.com 72.52.4.119
Subdomain superdelegate.list.com 141.8.224.183
Subdomain superdelegatel.ist.com 109.235.170.97
And what do you know, looks like berniesanders.com could also be targeted...
Original* berniesanders.com 104.16.42.58
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitsquatting ferniesanders.com 192.64.119.18
Bitsquatting barniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Bitsquatting burniesanders.com 168.235.79.101
Bitsquatting berniesandars.com 50.63.202.39
Homoglyph berniesamders.com 185.53.177.7
Homoglyph bermiesanders.com 141.8.224.183
Homoglyph berniesandlers.com 141.8.224.93
Hyphenation bernie-sanders.com 104.131.97.43
Insertion berniewsanders.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion brerniesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion bereniesanders.com 103.224.182.226
Insertion berniersanders.com 158.69.143.80
Insertion berniesandeers.com 141.8.224.93
Insertion beerniesanders.com 184.168.221.60
Insertion berniesansders.com 141.8.224.93
Insertion berniesanderes.com 174.137.132.28
Insertion berniessanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission berniesandrs.com 141.8.224.93
Omission berniesandes.com 185.53.177.7
Omission beniesanders.com 51.254.28.161
Omission beriesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Omission bernesanders.com 192.64.147.196
Omission erniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission bernisanders.com 199.59.243.120
Omission berniesander.com 50.63.202.17
Omission berniesaders.com 185.53.177.7
Omission brniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Omission bernieanders.com 199.59.243.120
Omission berniesaners.com 74.208.178.101
Omission berniesnders.com 141.8.224.93
Repetition bberniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Repetition bernniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement berniessnders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement beeniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesandrrs.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesabders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement betniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement bernirsanders.com 185.53.177.7
Replacement berniesandera.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement berbiesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement verniesanders.com 184.168.221.39
Replacement bernuesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniesandwrs.com 54.72.9.51
Replacement bernoesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Replacement berniwsanders.com 185.53.177.8
Replacement berniedanders.com 141.8.224.169
Replacement nerniesanders.com 54.72.9.51
Replacement bernissanders.com 141.8.224.169
Subdomain b.erniesanders.com 141.8.224.93
Subdomain be.rniesanders.com 141.8.224.169
Subdomain berni.esanders.com 208.73.210.217
Subdomain berniesa.nders.com 98.124.245.24
Subdomain berniesan.ders.com 98.124.199.24
Transposition benriesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Transposition berinesanders.com 174.137.132.28
Transposition berneisanders.com 185.53.177.7
Transposition berniesnaders.com 141.8.224.93
Transposition berniesandres.com 185.53.179.9
Various wwwberniesanders.com 185.53.178.6
And just for static record, here are dig queries of the domains as of last night:
$ dig wontvoteh.illary.com
; <<>> DiG <<>> wontvoteh.illary.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 22876
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 3
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;wontvoteh.illary.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
wontvoteh.illary.com. 86400 IN A 198.64.249.65
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
illary.com. 172799 IN NS ns14.databasemart.net.
illary.com. 172799 IN NS ns13.databasemart.net.
illary.com. 172799 IN NS ns5.databasemart.net.
illary.com. 172799 IN NS ns6.databasemart.net.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns13.databasemart.net. 172799 IN A 45.35.0.97
ns14.databasemart.net. 172799 IN A 67.211.45.3
;; Query time: 866 msec
;; SERVER: 10.69.69.69#53(10.69.69.69)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 27 06:49:38 EDT 2016
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 187
$ dig wontvotehilary.com
; <<>> DiG <<>> wontvotehilary.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 13424
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 3
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;wontvotehilary.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
wontvotehilary.com. 1800 IN A 174.137.132.28
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
wontvotehilary.com. 172800 IN NS is2.domainingdepot.com.
wontvotehilary.com. 172800 IN NS is1.domainingdepot.com.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
is1.domainingdepot.com. 167262 IN A 174.137.132.44
is2.domainingdepot.com. 167262 IN A 174.137.132.44
;; Query time: 327 msec
;; SERVER: 10.69.69.69#53(10.69.69.69)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 27 06:50:28 EDT 2016
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 146
This attack is possible due to incontrollable circumstances such as cosmic rays, excessive heat, poor quality RAM or capacitors, and other unpredictable environmental phenomenons affecting computer memory. Defcon had a presentation on DNS bitflipping (which you should watch if you want to understand the attack), which is what it would appear that her campaign may be doing. Basically, an anomaly occurs in memory, and characters that are digitally similar on the ASCII chart can become different characters, provided the computer, for whatever reason, reads the data incorrectly. Related, from the wiki page, this is how a bit flip attack works:
A bit-flipping attack is an attack on a cryptographic cipher in which the attacker can change the ciphertext in such a way as to result in a predictable change of the plaintext, although the attacker is not able to learn the plaintext itself. Note that this type of attack is not—directly—against the cipher itself (as cryptanalysis of it would be), but against a particular message or series of messages. In the extreme, this could become a Denial of service attack against all messages on a particular channel using that cipher.[1]
The attack is especially dangerous when the attacker knows the format of the message. In such a situation, the attacker can turn it into a similar message but one in which some important information is altered. For example, a change in the destination address might alter the message route in a way that will force re-encryption with a weaker cipher, thus possibly making it easier for an attacker to decipher the message.
When applied to digital signatures, the attacker might be able to change a promissory note stating "I owe you $10.00" into one stating "I owe you $10000".
Or from "wontvotehillary.com" to "wontvoteh.illary.com"..? In this case it's plain text DNS that's affected rather than cryptographic errors. This type of error can occur on either the client machine, or somwhere along the route, probably at the dns server. For more information, see this. I am not sure if character additions happen in bit errors, but I wouldn't doubt that's possible. Even if not, than it certainly has key squat potential, but with a lower probably of a hit than from the missing "l" domain.
For obvious reasons, I did not want to look much more into it beyond that. The point is, first it was million dollar trolls going after Bernie supporters. Now this suggests there is more under the surface, and perhaps that the Secretary is less "for us" than she claims. If she indeed has a cyber mercenary force working with her campaign, than that is disturbing. Imagine what she would do as president, armed with the NSA? Ask yourself, who else stands to gain from trying to pull off this kind of sophisticated attack? To be fair, it is possible, although unlikely, that these domains were registered by someone else, whom has no affiliation with her campaign, perhaps a security researcher.
Couple this with the Sanders facebook groups vanishing due to hilltrolls plastering porn all of them or something, and the fact that she (and Trump, disappointingly) also mocked the concept of free speech on the internet, and you've got a recipe for disaster. I guess that we know #WhichHillary won this week. Now you should have little doubt that she will censor and manipulate our internet. Since you're at this blog, I assume that internet freedom is somewhat important to you. Bernie is for the internet. Alas, at least Trump said "We need to talk to Bill Gates and some of these people that reallt know what's happening ..." before claiming we may have to "shut down the internet in some of the places." That shows Trump is quite oldschool and rather ill-informed on technology. The only silver lining is that he is admitting that he needs to talk to someone that knows something, even if he's confused about whom that may be. Besides, I would like to think that Gates would tell Trump that he's wrong. Hillary appears to have already started attacking the internet. She can't earn our respect, she can't magically erase public record, and she can't get away with flip-flopping policies as easily these days. Instead of trying to earn our votes, she hired an army of trolls to make it look like she has inspired the people. I'm sorry Madam Secretary, but you simply cannot buy passion. These people are incredibly easy to spot on the net. They're aura of inauthenticity is blatantly obvious, even after radiating through thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable.
So that's just one more reason why you should probably sign the pledge on the real site, http://wontvotehillary.com . I was going to write a boring blog about how Hillary Clinton made me dislike Hillary Clinton, but than she pretty much made the case for me.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Trump Rants
Revolution can be a scary thing, for everyone involved. Some chilling things came with the Trump campaign for sure, but there was an appeal that I could not dismiss. So I finally stopped taking the media's word for it and decided to go find out for myself whether or not this guy is for real. And after watching the uncensored, uncut speeches of his that were not taken completely out of context, I realized that he is totally right. The final diagnosis is this-- Trump is a true nationalist. "An imperfect messenger carrying a very real message", to quote the New York post. Someone with the money, power, resolve, and fame that it takes to make a difference. The best part? A guy that has never been a politician either! The only person that will take Hillary on, and that has the guts to expose her for what she really is. Bernie, why will you not talk about the thousand other scandals and corrupt things that could end her campaign? Google "Hillary Scandals". Just do it. I just don't understand how someone like that got where she is today. It's a disgrace.
Edit: I would likely still would vote for Bernie if he gets the nomination over Trump. I like both. They're both revolutionary candidates, in my opinion.
Trump appears to be the real deal. Because he is a state's man. Because he never even wanted to be a politician. Because if you watch every interview he's appeared on over the last 25 years, his message has been consistent-- That the USA is being exploited and laughed at all around the world. That it is truly unbelievable what is happening. That none of our "leaders" are doing anything about it. That our country is in serious trouble. Most convicting, that our leaders are all in on it. Who else in history has had the guts to really take on the corrupt United States establishment to this degree? Yes, Bernie is taking on Wall Street, and I would still vote for him. I still #FeelTheBern. But Trump's message has simply transfixed me over the last few days.
The media loves to pick on him. They love to take the things he says out of context, or only show the first half of his sentences, before he gets to make his point. We have ridiculously effective filter bubbles on our social media. You see what Google's servers think that you want to see. The algorithm decides what news you will get. Once you start to look past the filter bubbles, and make that algorithm think you are interested in other viewpoints, suddenly you will begin to see an entirely different world! That is what's happened to me lately.
I wondered why CNN was giving Trump so much press, considering they are a liberal media company. Well, it's because they were taking great pains to make Trump look bad. To stop his momentum at any cost and ensure the presidency to Crooked Hillary, who owns them. Even Trump himself has acknowledged that Bernie Sanders, whom I still love by the way, has been stonewalled. "Sanders wins, Sanders wins, the last six primaries, Sanders wins, yet what does the media say? Hillary is winning? It's all a lie." That's what he said.
How about drug policy? If you believe that the war on drugs is stupid, than take a closer look at Trump. His proposal is to legalize all drugs, tax them, and use the profits to educated the public about the risks of using drugs. That is the most sensible drug policy I have ever heard.
So let's talk about the controversial things he's said, like immigration. When Trump called for a total cessation on Muslim immigration, you probably did not here the other half of the sentence, which was "until we figure out just what the hell is going on". Fair enough, because there is something really fishy going on with this "war on terrorism". Let me be clear-- I do not think this is a good idea. In my eyes, people are people are people, and Americans must not discriminate. However, there is so much controversy surrounding the San Bernardino shootings, the September 11th attacks, and even recent attacks like Paris have left many questions unanswered. Sure, you can't get away with discriminating against an entire religion of people in this country. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt here and say this-- There is something totally insane going on here, and we need to take care of ourselves first. It's only logical. Every other country seems to do it but us. So I understand his frustration. I am hoping he changes his mind on this one.
Okay, so than there is that giant wall thing... Yes, it's ridiculous. I can't advocate for that, because walls not only keep people out, they also keep people in. I don't want to live in East Berlin. But the thing is that we have a very slow, very gridlocked government, and it would take a hell of a lot of negotiations to make that happen. Besides, he is going to have to tone this wall thing down a bit at some point, because America is very diverse, and Mexico is never going to pay for it. But you can't deny that there is a serious problem with immigration. I don't know if there is any solution to it, and maybe it's better left as it is. But there's something there. The allegations and concerns are valid. Trump's wife legally immigrated to this country. Trump has said that he would love to have Oprah Winfrey as his running mate! So, do you still think he's a racist?
Another thing that has people terrified of a Trump presidency is a fear of fascism, because he is, after all, another billionaire. Would Trump blur the lines between business and state? Would he use his power to advantage his own business?Maybe, but that's not why he's doing this. Update: It's 2019 and it's clear that Trump was certainly in this for the money... primary motivation? Not sure. But certainly a major motivation for running. This election is costing him a fortune, and he reiterated over the years that he really enjoyed what he was already doing, and would much prefer to stay out of politics. Him and Bernie are the first candidates I can remember to not take donations from controlling interest groups (with perhaps the notable exception of Ron Paul). Why else would he do this if he was just in it for the money? He's had many wealthy entities approach him and try to donate to his campaign, and he's turned them down. He is self funding his campaign so that his interests do not conflict with ours. It's legit.
It comes down to this. When I look at Hillary, I see a total phony. She has never accomplished anything of note in all her years as a senator, or as first lady. She points to her scandal-ridden time in the white house as her main qualification for her candidacy. If I was not such a Bernie fan, I'd love to see that debate. He would rip her apart! Really, what is she going to say when Trump starts hammering her about any of the three-dozen or so scandals she has been caught in over the years (Whitewater, PardonGate, EmailGate, Benghazi, not to mention she's under two current federal indictments that I know of)? I do not see a leader, I see a career criminal, and a compulsive liar that would be going into office already owing favors to Big Corporate and Big Military [industrial complex entities]. The best debate would be Hillary in '08 vs Hillary in '12 vs Hillary in '16... She's full of shit, folks! Admit it!
When I look through the media smokescreen, and really analyze Donald Trump's motives for running, I see a man that is passionate about saving his country from a staggering group of incompetent, greedy, corrupt, bought-paid-and-owned group of elites. I see a genuine person. A real person. Ever since 2012, I have been aching to see a real person run for president. Someone who is not a neocon. Finally, we have someone fighting for us. So he's not perfect. So what? Who is? Not you, not I, not even Bernie (although I admire him very much), but certainty not Hillary Clinton. It's never going to happen, Hillary. Not on our watch.
Thus, I now support Donald Trump. My heart i still with Bernie, but if he does not get the nomination, I will vote for Trump. Fortunately, I am an independent registered voter, so I have the "privilege" of voting for whoever I like in November (but not in the primaries. Yes, it is true-- The system is rigged). A vote for Trump (and to a degree, Bernie) is a vote against the establishment that keeps us scratching our heads in disbelief while dragging an ever-heavier ball and chain.
It's true. We don't win anymore. I can't believe I am saying this, but you know what? It really is time to make America great again.
Edit: I would likely still would vote for Bernie if he gets the nomination over Trump. I like both. They're both revolutionary candidates, in my opinion.
Trump appears to be the real deal. Because he is a state's man. Because he never even wanted to be a politician. Because if you watch every interview he's appeared on over the last 25 years, his message has been consistent-- That the USA is being exploited and laughed at all around the world. That it is truly unbelievable what is happening. That none of our "leaders" are doing anything about it. That our country is in serious trouble. Most convicting, that our leaders are all in on it. Who else in history has had the guts to really take on the corrupt United States establishment to this degree? Yes, Bernie is taking on Wall Street, and I would still vote for him. I still #FeelTheBern. But Trump's message has simply transfixed me over the last few days.
The media loves to pick on him. They love to take the things he says out of context, or only show the first half of his sentences, before he gets to make his point. We have ridiculously effective filter bubbles on our social media. You see what Google's servers think that you want to see. The algorithm decides what news you will get. Once you start to look past the filter bubbles, and make that algorithm think you are interested in other viewpoints, suddenly you will begin to see an entirely different world! That is what's happened to me lately.
I wondered why CNN was giving Trump so much press, considering they are a liberal media company. Well, it's because they were taking great pains to make Trump look bad. To stop his momentum at any cost and ensure the presidency to Crooked Hillary, who owns them. Even Trump himself has acknowledged that Bernie Sanders, whom I still love by the way, has been stonewalled. "Sanders wins, Sanders wins, the last six primaries, Sanders wins, yet what does the media say? Hillary is winning? It's all a lie." That's what he said.
How about drug policy? If you believe that the war on drugs is stupid, than take a closer look at Trump. His proposal is to legalize all drugs, tax them, and use the profits to educated the public about the risks of using drugs. That is the most sensible drug policy I have ever heard.
So let's talk about the controversial things he's said, like immigration. When Trump called for a total cessation on Muslim immigration, you probably did not here the other half of the sentence, which was "until we figure out just what the hell is going on". Fair enough, because there is something really fishy going on with this "war on terrorism". Let me be clear-- I do not think this is a good idea. In my eyes, people are people are people, and Americans must not discriminate. However, there is so much controversy surrounding the San Bernardino shootings, the September 11th attacks, and even recent attacks like Paris have left many questions unanswered. Sure, you can't get away with discriminating against an entire religion of people in this country. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt here and say this-- There is something totally insane going on here, and we need to take care of ourselves first. It's only logical. Every other country seems to do it but us. So I understand his frustration. I am hoping he changes his mind on this one.
Okay, so than there is that giant wall thing... Yes, it's ridiculous. I can't advocate for that, because walls not only keep people out, they also keep people in. I don't want to live in East Berlin. But the thing is that we have a very slow, very gridlocked government, and it would take a hell of a lot of negotiations to make that happen. Besides, he is going to have to tone this wall thing down a bit at some point, because America is very diverse, and Mexico is never going to pay for it. But you can't deny that there is a serious problem with immigration. I don't know if there is any solution to it, and maybe it's better left as it is. But there's something there. The allegations and concerns are valid. Trump's wife legally immigrated to this country. Trump has said that he would love to have Oprah Winfrey as his running mate! So, do you still think he's a racist?
Another thing that has people terrified of a Trump presidency is a fear of fascism, because he is, after all, another billionaire. Would Trump blur the lines between business and state? Would he use his power to advantage his own business?
It comes down to this. When I look at Hillary, I see a total phony. She has never accomplished anything of note in all her years as a senator, or as first lady. She points to her scandal-ridden time in the white house as her main qualification for her candidacy. If I was not such a Bernie fan, I'd love to see that debate. He would rip her apart! Really, what is she going to say when Trump starts hammering her about any of the three-dozen or so scandals she has been caught in over the years (Whitewater, PardonGate, EmailGate, Benghazi, not to mention she's under two current federal indictments that I know of)? I do not see a leader, I see a career criminal, and a compulsive liar that would be going into office already owing favors to Big Corporate and Big Military [industrial complex entities]. The best debate would be Hillary in '08 vs Hillary in '12 vs Hillary in '16... She's full of shit, folks! Admit it!
When I look through the media smokescreen, and really analyze Donald Trump's motives for running, I see a man that is passionate about saving his country from a staggering group of incompetent, greedy, corrupt, bought-paid-and-owned group of elites. I see a genuine person. A real person. Ever since 2012, I have been aching to see a real person run for president. Someone who is not a neocon. Finally, we have someone fighting for us. So he's not perfect. So what? Who is? Not you, not I, not even Bernie (although I admire him very much), but certainty not Hillary Clinton. It's never going to happen, Hillary. Not on our watch.
Thus, I now support Donald Trump. My heart i still with Bernie, but if he does not get the nomination, I will vote for Trump. Fortunately, I am an independent registered voter, so I have the "privilege" of voting for whoever I like in November (but not in the primaries. Yes, it is true-- The system is rigged). A vote for Trump (and to a degree, Bernie) is a vote against the establishment that keeps us scratching our heads in disbelief while dragging an ever-heavier ball and chain.
It's true. We don't win anymore. I can't believe I am saying this, but you know what? It really is time to make America great again.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Is This What Revolution Looks Like?
This election has me positively on the edge of my seat. I can't believe this shit, it is absolutely horrifying how entertaining it is! I am very torn with the situation. There is one good and many deadly possible scenarios to consider. On one hand, you've got Donald Trump, and his scene, which is in many ways is the declaration of total war against the establishment we all hate (as white middle class Americans, anyway). He has completely destroyed the republican party, and yet, he still keeps winning. Every stupid thing he says makes him more popular. It blows my mind, and sometimes I can't peel myself off the floor. I have to admit, I admire that about Trump. You want to believe that he really wants the best for us all, and just needs to get the masses on board, so he has to touch on all of things that piss everyone off, no matter how shocking or horrible those things may be.
Now he has put the Republican party in a really interesting position. It's likely that he will be the Republican nominee. There's just no stopping this guy. It's like he's agreed with some or many little things that piss off many different demographics, and because he's the only guy that will at acknowledge just how fucked up things are, we're almost willing to accept the insane things that he says as well. He has insinuated that if he gets the popular vote, and does not get the nomination, than there may be riots, or a total popular uprising (although he says he doesn't endorse that). The republicans are fully aware of this, and have acknowledged the situation is really bad for them, and they're stuck with it. You are all well aware of Trump, I am sure. I don't need to say much more.
On the other hand, you've got Hillary Clinton, aka, the Snake. A total viscous power crazed woman that will destroy whatever is in her path, much like the Underwood's in House of Cards, the Clinton's are the evil machine that is currently polluting Democracy. She think's she is qualified to be president because of her scandalous time as first lady. They bet it all on her, and she will lie, cheat, and do whatever it takes to win. But remember, it was "her time" in 2008, when Obama was chosen by voters and super-delegates alike instead. She is the Democratic reincarnation of George W Bush foreign policy. A war mongering, three-faced psychopath under investigation by the FBI. Lovely, isn't it? She's actually been under investigation many, many times over the years, but hey, we're American. We don't remember shit. Fuck man, this is when I wonder if I'd rather have Trump. Seriously, she is exactly what we as a nation have been saying we're sick of for decades now. Someone who already owes favors to controlling interests and isn't even in the fracking white house yet. But she's going to be "the first woman president" omg! Excuse me, but what the fuck does that even mean? Who would be proud of that? #NeverHillary .. God fucking help us. (Also see: Anonymous's Message to Hillary)
BUT ... there is Bernie Sanders! You know, the guy that keeps winning yet the media has been totally fucking over on a regular basis and everyone knows it! He's a legit dude, I love him. He's so inspiring. Restoring my faith in American politics... as close as possible, anyways. Him and Ron Paul are the only politicians I've ever liked, and I am not alone here, not one bit. He's the guy we want. I just wish he'd gone harden on Hillary. There is so much that he could use to destroy her. Just watch this or this, and than retrospect on the 90's.
If Bernie can't beat Hillary, we're fucked. Not only are we stuck with at least 4 more years of total bullshit, the same old policies of entering more wars, exploiting third world countries, and lies and lies, and more lies and bullshit and lies, but it's going to be even worse with her. She has a truly horrible record. She has no notable accomplishments. She will contribute nothing. "What difference does it make, they're dead!" ... And I bet Bernie or Trump would beat her next time in any case, I would say I can guarantee you that, but I am not Trump so I will leave that to him. I have to hand it to the guy, and yes, damn it, I know. I know. BUT, you can't tell me that he has not set forth a full force revolution, for better or for worse. Dude. Things are never ever going to be the same in America after this spectacle. I just don't fucking know anymore. But I do know this-- Either I vote for Bernie, or I say fuck it, let's take a chance and risk letting Trump burn it all to the ground. If that sounds radical to you, than you don't know enough about Hillary's criminal career. She wants to take all of our guns away, quite literally. Bernie, on the other hand, comes from Vermont, a state where anyone can open carry, and consequently a state with low crime. She only seeks to further the interests of Wall St. How do people not see through this?
Bernie represents the first potential president with a clean record since Roosevelt. Clinton represents everything that is wrong with our country. I am not sure what Trump represents, but I'd rather have an ignorant, bigotish, honest, loudmouth than the career criminal, Hillary. So it comes down to this. Bernie supporters should not endorse Clinton if he looses the nomination. You think Obama was corrupt? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Now he has put the Republican party in a really interesting position. It's likely that he will be the Republican nominee. There's just no stopping this guy. It's like he's agreed with some or many little things that piss off many different demographics, and because he's the only guy that will at acknowledge just how fucked up things are, we're almost willing to accept the insane things that he says as well. He has insinuated that if he gets the popular vote, and does not get the nomination, than there may be riots, or a total popular uprising (although he says he doesn't endorse that). The republicans are fully aware of this, and have acknowledged the situation is really bad for them, and they're stuck with it. You are all well aware of Trump, I am sure. I don't need to say much more.
On the other hand, you've got Hillary Clinton, aka, the Snake. A total viscous power crazed woman that will destroy whatever is in her path, much like the Underwood's in House of Cards, the Clinton's are the evil machine that is currently polluting Democracy. She think's she is qualified to be president because of her scandalous time as first lady. They bet it all on her, and she will lie, cheat, and do whatever it takes to win. But remember, it was "her time" in 2008, when Obama was chosen by voters and super-delegates alike instead. She is the Democratic reincarnation of George W Bush foreign policy. A war mongering, three-faced psychopath under investigation by the FBI. Lovely, isn't it? She's actually been under investigation many, many times over the years, but hey, we're American. We don't remember shit. Fuck man, this is when I wonder if I'd rather have Trump. Seriously, she is exactly what we as a nation have been saying we're sick of for decades now. Someone who already owes favors to controlling interests and isn't even in the fracking white house yet. But she's going to be "the first woman president" omg! Excuse me, but what the fuck does that even mean? Who would be proud of that? #NeverHillary .. God fucking help us. (Also see: Anonymous's Message to Hillary)
BUT ... there is Bernie Sanders! You know, the guy that keeps winning yet the media has been totally fucking over on a regular basis and everyone knows it! He's a legit dude, I love him. He's so inspiring. Restoring my faith in American politics... as close as possible, anyways. Him and Ron Paul are the only politicians I've ever liked, and I am not alone here, not one bit. He's the guy we want. I just wish he'd gone harden on Hillary. There is so much that he could use to destroy her. Just watch this or this, and than retrospect on the 90's.
If Bernie can't beat Hillary, we're fucked. Not only are we stuck with at least 4 more years of total bullshit, the same old policies of entering more wars, exploiting third world countries, and lies and lies, and more lies and bullshit and lies, but it's going to be even worse with her. She has a truly horrible record. She has no notable accomplishments. She will contribute nothing. "What difference does it make, they're dead!" ... And I bet Bernie or Trump would beat her next time in any case, I would say I can guarantee you that, but I am not Trump so I will leave that to him. I have to hand it to the guy, and yes, damn it, I know. I know. BUT, you can't tell me that he has not set forth a full force revolution, for better or for worse. Dude. Things are never ever going to be the same in America after this spectacle. I just don't fucking know anymore. But I do know this-- Either I vote for Bernie, or I say fuck it, let's take a chance and risk letting Trump burn it all to the ground. If that sounds radical to you, than you don't know enough about Hillary's criminal career. She wants to take all of our guns away, quite literally. Bernie, on the other hand, comes from Vermont, a state where anyone can open carry, and consequently a state with low crime. She only seeks to further the interests of Wall St. How do people not see through this?
Bernie represents the first potential president with a clean record since Roosevelt. Clinton represents everything that is wrong with our country. I am not sure what Trump represents, but I'd rather have an ignorant, bigotish, honest, loudmouth than the career criminal, Hillary. So it comes down to this. Bernie supporters should not endorse Clinton if he looses the nomination. You think Obama was corrupt? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Bernie or Bernie
Edit: I encourage anyone and everyone to watch this video before voting for Hillary. It exposes many facts that show what she really represents.
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that will ever get my vote, and I will tell you why. For the first time in my life, a presidential candidate is actually restoring my faith in our political system. Bernie's success is proof that it is possible for someone outside of the establishment, that actually represents the will of the people, to run for president with success.
Bernie is someone that clearly and legitimately cares about the people he wants to represent. Bernie is the only candidate I can remember (except perhaps Ron Paul) that has not taken financial contributions from so called "special interest" groups like Wall Street. Funded mainly by contributions from individuals, he is a true man of the people. For sixteen years, Bernie served as an Independent in senate, with no ties any political party. It would be so refreshing to see someone in office that puts the people before the "party" (or gang, as Jesse Ventura puts it).
Bernie is also one of very few politicians that opposed the Patriot Act from the start. He also has always opposed the Transpacific Partnership Agreement, which Hillary initially supported! His track record shows that he is someone that will do the right thing when the pressure is on, even if it is the unpopular thing at the time. He is also completely opposed to fracking, which is proof that he is not owned by the fossil fuel industries. He acknowledges what our scientists are telling us about climate change, and has the balls to do something about it.
He has always fought for the middle class, minority populations, and has stood up for civil rights, even when it was unpopular. In the 90's he voted against much of the discriminating legislation that the Clintons supported. He does not only understand and acknowledge the issues we face, he actually has a record of acting on them. The American people desperately need a president like that. Sanders is brewing a revolution by inspiring young people to participate in the political process, many of whom had otherwise given up on working within the system. And he did all of that, in America, after declaring himself a socialist. There is definitely something special about this guy.
On the other hand, we have Secretary of Sate Hillary Clinton, who is blatantly owned by Big Money interests, and won't even deny it. The fact that she refuses to release the transcripts of the speeches she gave to those guys for large sums of money after the housing crisis of '08 is proof that she represents their interests, and not ours. Seriously, how can someone claim to be a propontent of change when they accept giant contributions from the very people causing the problems we currently face? If the content of those transcripts would show otherwise, than why not release them and prove Bernie wrong? The answer is obvious-- because the outrage the contents of those transcripts would produce would ensure the Democratic nomination to Bernie. It's much easier for her to divert the question by telling us "Well, you can go to my website and see my tax returns!!" It's pathetic. She also seems to copy all of Bernie's positions, like opposing the TPP, or raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She's a flake.
Hillary is part of the same establishment that has failed us as a country for decades. She supported all of our worst war policies, and loves to praise president Obama, probably because she doesn't have many notable accomplishments of her own. Isn't it time we elect someone new? Are you not fed up with the failure and lies of our current leaders? Are we as a nation not fed up with how untrustworthy the establishment is? Is it not way past the time to pass the torch to someone else? Someone with new ideas? I believe the majority of Americans actually think that it is that time. Yet, we are being misrepresented. Our voice is being twisted. The press is painting a false portrait that over estimates Hillary's support, while failing to acknowledge Bernie's.
If that's not enough, she can always use her connections to rig the primaries, nullify hundreds of thousands of votes that should go to Bernie, and than even if Bernie does win a state, she need not worry about that hurting her chances. The mainstream media will simply deny that Sanders is winning and say "Despite big wins by Sanders, Clinton is actually winning." Well you know what? Fuck you Big Media, we have the internet on our side, and we won't be fooled anymore. Have you noticed that every time there is some "abnormally" with the voting process, it is always in Hillary's favor?
Oh right, than there's the super-delegates. She didn't need to "get them early", they were already hers. Do you know what these so-called super-delegates are? Wikipedia sums it up nicely:
For Democrats, super-delegates fall into three categories based on other positions they hold, and are formally described (in Rule 9.A) as "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates"[4] (unpledged PLEO delegates) consisting of:
"Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grass-roots activists. We are, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, and so we want to give every opportunity to grass-roots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend and be a delegate at the convention. And so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn't competition between them." -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
In other words, the super-delegates are there to make sure that the Democrats in power continue to stay in power. In the event that the people want to elect someone from outside of the establishment, the super-delegates are there to bring the odds in their favor. Basically, these "extra" delegates are people whom possess votes 10,000 times more powerful than ours, and they are not people that we elected to represent us. Another point worth mentioning is that the super delegate votes are not supposed to be relevant until after the primaries. Yet, in every delegate chart published, those delegates in included. This is an old card that the media is currently playing to create the illusion that Hillary is undoubtedly the front runner, will get the nomination, and that there is nothing you can do about it.
Take Colorado, for example. Sanders won 39 delegates, compared to Clinton's 27, yet because of the 12 super-delegates, who's vote, by the way, are not even supposed to be a factor until after the primary... the delegates will be split even amongst them. If this is not voter fraud, than what is? That kind of scandal goes against everything democracy stands for. Even Trump recently recognized this! These people are not accountable to anyone. (Want to know who they are?)
Did I mention that nobody even likes Hillary? Watch the Michigan and New York debates closely. It's obvious that the crowds love Bernie, and it's obvious that Hillary is grasping straws. Every point she makes against Bernie is desperate nonsense, particularly her attempts to paint Bernie as an obstacle to gun control because he voted against the absurd Brady Bill, which would have made it possible to hold gun manufacturers liable for the crimes the person that pulls the trigger commits. That'd be like me suing Heinz if someone smashed a jar of pickles over my head.
At least Jeb Bush had the decency to recognize that our country was interested in a third Bush presidency, respect that, and step aside. She is a last resort candidate, and the only reason anyone is going to vote for her is to stop Donald Trump. If the Democratic party wants to do that, than perhaps they ought to look at the poll data that makes it clear that a Sanders vs Trump election has a much more promising outcome than a Clinton vs Trump election does. If you don't believe that, just take a look at the comments all over the internet, which are filled with people saying "Bernie or Trump", or "Never Hillary".
Trump is certainty a fairly detestable human being, yet his campaign has been an interesting phenomenon because it's more proof that it is possible for someone from outside the establishment to run for president successfully. This is unprecedented stuff. It's very unfortunate that he's such an idiot, because like Bernie, he has raised much awareness about the large injustices occurring in our country because of our rigged, broken political system. Don't get me wrong, I do not support Trump. But at least he tries to be honest, which is more than I can say for Hillary Clinton. However, for obvious reasons, I cannot support a Trump presidency. But I'll tell you this... Hillary will not get my vote. I am sick of having to choose the lesser of two evils. Like Jerry Garcia said, in those circumstances, you're still choosing evil.
So where do we go from here? First of all, don't be fooled by the mainstream media's over-exageration of Hillary winning New York. They are not telling you how close it was, or that Bernie still walked away with over 100 delegates from New York. There are still 1,668 democratic delegates up for grabs. If Sanders can win California, he could get the nomination. But if that is going to happen, we all need to pull together, go out and vote for Bernie, and support him in any way we can. I am not financially well off at all, but I still contributed $10 to Bernie's campaign yesterday. Sure, that's not much, but if we all do that, than it will go a long way. This is a very important election. Much is at stake. Trump must not be allowed to win. Hillary must be defeated. The only choice is Bernie. If not Bernie, than Bernie. I am not giving up. Remember, Obama only won one county in New York in 2008, and he managed to win. Bernie won almost all of them. If we are going to beat these bastards, we need to pull together now. Bernie or Bernie.
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that will ever get my vote, and I will tell you why. For the first time in my life, a presidential candidate is actually restoring my faith in our political system. Bernie's success is proof that it is possible for someone outside of the establishment, that actually represents the will of the people, to run for president with success.
Bernie is someone that clearly and legitimately cares about the people he wants to represent. Bernie is the only candidate I can remember (except perhaps Ron Paul) that has not taken financial contributions from so called "special interest" groups like Wall Street. Funded mainly by contributions from individuals, he is a true man of the people. For sixteen years, Bernie served as an Independent in senate, with no ties any political party. It would be so refreshing to see someone in office that puts the people before the "party" (or gang, as Jesse Ventura puts it).
Bernie is also one of very few politicians that opposed the Patriot Act from the start. He also has always opposed the Transpacific Partnership Agreement, which Hillary initially supported! His track record shows that he is someone that will do the right thing when the pressure is on, even if it is the unpopular thing at the time. He is also completely opposed to fracking, which is proof that he is not owned by the fossil fuel industries. He acknowledges what our scientists are telling us about climate change, and has the balls to do something about it.
He has always fought for the middle class, minority populations, and has stood up for civil rights, even when it was unpopular. In the 90's he voted against much of the discriminating legislation that the Clintons supported. He does not only understand and acknowledge the issues we face, he actually has a record of acting on them. The American people desperately need a president like that. Sanders is brewing a revolution by inspiring young people to participate in the political process, many of whom had otherwise given up on working within the system. And he did all of that, in America, after declaring himself a socialist. There is definitely something special about this guy.
On the other hand, we have Secretary of Sate Hillary Clinton, who is blatantly owned by Big Money interests, and won't even deny it. The fact that she refuses to release the transcripts of the speeches she gave to those guys for large sums of money after the housing crisis of '08 is proof that she represents their interests, and not ours. Seriously, how can someone claim to be a propontent of change when they accept giant contributions from the very people causing the problems we currently face? If the content of those transcripts would show otherwise, than why not release them and prove Bernie wrong? The answer is obvious-- because the outrage the contents of those transcripts would produce would ensure the Democratic nomination to Bernie. It's much easier for her to divert the question by telling us "Well, you can go to my website and see my tax returns!!" It's pathetic. She also seems to copy all of Bernie's positions, like opposing the TPP, or raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She's a flake.
Hillary is part of the same establishment that has failed us as a country for decades. She supported all of our worst war policies, and loves to praise president Obama, probably because she doesn't have many notable accomplishments of her own. Isn't it time we elect someone new? Are you not fed up with the failure and lies of our current leaders? Are we as a nation not fed up with how untrustworthy the establishment is? Is it not way past the time to pass the torch to someone else? Someone with new ideas? I believe the majority of Americans actually think that it is that time. Yet, we are being misrepresented. Our voice is being twisted. The press is painting a false portrait that over estimates Hillary's support, while failing to acknowledge Bernie's.
If that's not enough, she can always use her connections to rig the primaries, nullify hundreds of thousands of votes that should go to Bernie, and than even if Bernie does win a state, she need not worry about that hurting her chances. The mainstream media will simply deny that Sanders is winning and say "Despite big wins by Sanders, Clinton is actually winning." Well you know what? Fuck you Big Media, we have the internet on our side, and we won't be fooled anymore. Have you noticed that every time there is some "abnormally" with the voting process, it is always in Hillary's favor?
Oh right, than there's the super-delegates. She didn't need to "get them early", they were already hers. Do you know what these so-called super-delegates are? Wikipedia sums it up nicely:
For Democrats, super-delegates fall into three categories based on other positions they hold, and are formally described (in Rule 9.A) as "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates"[4] (unpledged PLEO delegates) consisting of:
- elected members of the Democratic National Committee
- distinguished party leaders, consisting of current and former presidents, vice presidents, congressional leaders, and DNC chairs
- sitting Democratic governors and members of Congress.
"Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grass-roots activists. We are, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, and so we want to give every opportunity to grass-roots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend and be a delegate at the convention. And so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn't competition between them." -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
In other words, the super-delegates are there to make sure that the Democrats in power continue to stay in power. In the event that the people want to elect someone from outside of the establishment, the super-delegates are there to bring the odds in their favor. Basically, these "extra" delegates are people whom possess votes 10,000 times more powerful than ours, and they are not people that we elected to represent us. Another point worth mentioning is that the super delegate votes are not supposed to be relevant until after the primaries. Yet, in every delegate chart published, those delegates in included. This is an old card that the media is currently playing to create the illusion that Hillary is undoubtedly the front runner, will get the nomination, and that there is nothing you can do about it.
Take Colorado, for example. Sanders won 39 delegates, compared to Clinton's 27, yet because of the 12 super-delegates, who's vote, by the way, are not even supposed to be a factor until after the primary... the delegates will be split even amongst them. If this is not voter fraud, than what is? That kind of scandal goes against everything democracy stands for. Even Trump recently recognized this! These people are not accountable to anyone. (Want to know who they are?)
Did I mention that nobody even likes Hillary? Watch the Michigan and New York debates closely. It's obvious that the crowds love Bernie, and it's obvious that Hillary is grasping straws. Every point she makes against Bernie is desperate nonsense, particularly her attempts to paint Bernie as an obstacle to gun control because he voted against the absurd Brady Bill, which would have made it possible to hold gun manufacturers liable for the crimes the person that pulls the trigger commits. That'd be like me suing Heinz if someone smashed a jar of pickles over my head.
At least Jeb Bush had the decency to recognize that our country was interested in a third Bush presidency, respect that, and step aside. She is a last resort candidate, and the only reason anyone is going to vote for her is to stop Donald Trump. If the Democratic party wants to do that, than perhaps they ought to look at the poll data that makes it clear that a Sanders vs Trump election has a much more promising outcome than a Clinton vs Trump election does. If you don't believe that, just take a look at the comments all over the internet, which are filled with people saying "Bernie or Trump", or "Never Hillary".
Trump is certainty a fairly detestable human being, yet his campaign has been an interesting phenomenon because it's more proof that it is possible for someone from outside the establishment to run for president successfully. This is unprecedented stuff. It's very unfortunate that he's such an idiot, because like Bernie, he has raised much awareness about the large injustices occurring in our country because of our rigged, broken political system. Don't get me wrong, I do not support Trump. But at least he tries to be honest, which is more than I can say for Hillary Clinton. However, for obvious reasons, I cannot support a Trump presidency. But I'll tell you this... Hillary will not get my vote. I am sick of having to choose the lesser of two evils. Like Jerry Garcia said, in those circumstances, you're still choosing evil.
So where do we go from here? First of all, don't be fooled by the mainstream media's over-exageration of Hillary winning New York. They are not telling you how close it was, or that Bernie still walked away with over 100 delegates from New York. There are still 1,668 democratic delegates up for grabs. If Sanders can win California, he could get the nomination. But if that is going to happen, we all need to pull together, go out and vote for Bernie, and support him in any way we can. I am not financially well off at all, but I still contributed $10 to Bernie's campaign yesterday. Sure, that's not much, but if we all do that, than it will go a long way. This is a very important election. Much is at stake. Trump must not be allowed to win. Hillary must be defeated. The only choice is Bernie. If not Bernie, than Bernie. I am not giving up. Remember, Obama only won one county in New York in 2008, and he managed to win. Bernie won almost all of them. If we are going to beat these bastards, we need to pull together now. Bernie or Bernie.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Rooting Linux Servers for Fun & Prophit
Rooting a machine is incredibly easy these days. Give me five minutes, a bash shell, and a shodan api key, and I will get you root access to some system, somewhere. But while anyone can root a box, maintaining access is another art altogether, and one that is not always straight forward. Here are some common techniques and their caveats.
If the host is not behind NAT, than you may be able to use a bindshell. This method is nice because the attacker doesn't have to leave an IP address anywhere on the system, and can initiate the connection only when needed. However, even if the victim host is not behind NAT, it may have it's own firewall rules which will block incoming connections. Even if there is no firewall, adding a rogue listening service will show up in ss and netstat output, and that could lead to discovery. To get around that problem, you could attempt to compromise an existing service, which can be less conspicuous.
For instance, you could enable root ssh access (if it's not already enabled), and add a pub key to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, but even the most incompetent system administrator is bound to notice that. You could also add a root equivalent account to /etc/passwd under a different username, but that also is easy to spot. Another popular tactic is to find a way to get limited shell access to the system, perhaps through some legitimate service, or perhaps by installing a hidden webshell somewhere deep within the serving directory. Next, a setuid binary is placed somewhere, so that when executed, it always executes as root. This works well, and if hidden correctly, it may be a long time before discovered. However, suid files are often searched for by security programs and administrators alike, and when found will probably be further examined and removed.
Than we have reverse shells, which except in strict environments, tend to get around iptables rules and NAT setups, because firewalls tend to allow outgoing connections. The main caveat to this method is that you either need to leave the reverse shell constantly trying to connect back to an IP that you control, or you need to find a way to remotely trigger it, which leads us back to our firewall problem... So, what else can we do?
We can use ICMP to trigger our reverse shell! "Pings", or ICMP echo requests are more often that not, allowed for diagnostic purposes. They also are somewhat inconspicuous, as they don't show up in netstat output like tcp and udp connections do, and are easy to overlook in tcpdump output as well. Suffice to say, most of the time, a couple of echo request packets will go unnoticed. We can even encode messages in ICMP packets, which we can use to both password protect our backdoor, and to tell the victim system where to send our reverse shell. Actually, we can run pretty much any command we want with a cleverly baked raw packet, but triggering a proper shell is much nicer.
I found this unix backdoor called Prism a while ago on Github and forked it (original author andreafabrizi). It daemonizes itself and waits for the ICMP trigger, which contains a password and ip:port to send a reverse shell back to. It also offers all the usual things one would expect a backdoor to do, like changing it's process name after forking, and also offers a 'static' mode that operates like a standard reverse shell and reconnects every 15 second or whatever interval you set for situations where you can't use ICMP.
It's a great solution for the times when you have a host with a public ip that does not block incoming echo requests that you just obtained root on. While running some tests, I also noticed that when installed as an Ubuntu upstart job, for some reason it is difficult to spot the daemon by simple running ps... Actually, that's kind of scary. It also does not need to listen on any ip ports, making it a very stealthy userspace backdoor. Another bonus is the option to flush iptables before sending the reverse shell, which could ensure you keep access on systems that block outgoing traffic.
Armed with this knowledge and a shodan account, you should be able to take over the world. Good luck.
If the host is not behind NAT, than you may be able to use a bindshell. This method is nice because the attacker doesn't have to leave an IP address anywhere on the system, and can initiate the connection only when needed. However, even if the victim host is not behind NAT, it may have it's own firewall rules which will block incoming connections. Even if there is no firewall, adding a rogue listening service will show up in ss and netstat output, and that could lead to discovery. To get around that problem, you could attempt to compromise an existing service, which can be less conspicuous.
For instance, you could enable root ssh access (if it's not already enabled), and add a pub key to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, but even the most incompetent system administrator is bound to notice that. You could also add a root equivalent account to /etc/passwd under a different username, but that also is easy to spot. Another popular tactic is to find a way to get limited shell access to the system, perhaps through some legitimate service, or perhaps by installing a hidden webshell somewhere deep within the serving directory. Next, a setuid binary is placed somewhere, so that when executed, it always executes as root. This works well, and if hidden correctly, it may be a long time before discovered. However, suid files are often searched for by security programs and administrators alike, and when found will probably be further examined and removed.
Than we have reverse shells, which except in strict environments, tend to get around iptables rules and NAT setups, because firewalls tend to allow outgoing connections. The main caveat to this method is that you either need to leave the reverse shell constantly trying to connect back to an IP that you control, or you need to find a way to remotely trigger it, which leads us back to our firewall problem... So, what else can we do?
We can use ICMP to trigger our reverse shell! "Pings", or ICMP echo requests are more often that not, allowed for diagnostic purposes. They also are somewhat inconspicuous, as they don't show up in netstat output like tcp and udp connections do, and are easy to overlook in tcpdump output as well. Suffice to say, most of the time, a couple of echo request packets will go unnoticed. We can even encode messages in ICMP packets, which we can use to both password protect our backdoor, and to tell the victim system where to send our reverse shell. Actually, we can run pretty much any command we want with a cleverly baked raw packet, but triggering a proper shell is much nicer.
I found this unix backdoor called Prism a while ago on Github and forked it (original author andreafabrizi). It daemonizes itself and waits for the ICMP trigger, which contains a password and ip:port to send a reverse shell back to. It also offers all the usual things one would expect a backdoor to do, like changing it's process name after forking, and also offers a 'static' mode that operates like a standard reverse shell and reconnects every 15 second or whatever interval you set for situations where you can't use ICMP.
It's a great solution for the times when you have a host with a public ip that does not block incoming echo requests that you just obtained root on. While running some tests, I also noticed that when installed as an Ubuntu upstart job, for some reason it is difficult to spot the daemon by simple running ps... Actually, that's kind of scary. It also does not need to listen on any ip ports, making it a very stealthy userspace backdoor. Another bonus is the option to flush iptables before sending the reverse shell, which could ensure you keep access on systems that block outgoing traffic.
Armed with this knowledge and a shodan account, you should be able to take over the world. Good luck.
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