Month: December 2016

Under normal circumstances, the President-elect Trump and President Obama would discuss the proposed sanctions on Russia and issue a joint statement. After all, Obama doesn’t have to deal with the ramifications, Trump does. But in this fucked up political environment we live in, the incoming President and the one sitting in the White House agree on virtually nothing.

Obama and the democrats believe Russia won the election for Trump. As a matter of fact, many republicans like McCain and Ryan most likely believe the same. As such, we have a delicate situation playing out where Russia is being punished and publicly humiliated, in spite of the wishes of the President elect.

The spokesman for President Vladimir Putin says Moscow regrets the new sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia on Thursday and is considering retaliatory steps.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, said Obama’s actions were both “unpredictable” and “aggressive foreign policy.”

He furthered:

“Such steps of the U.S. administration that has three weeks left to work are aimed at two things: to further harm Russian-American ties, which are at a low point as it is, as well as, obviously, deal a blow on the foreign policy plans of the incoming administration of the president-elect.”

Peskov said Putin was working on methods to retaliate.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Kremlin’s upper house’s international affairs committee, told Interfax  Russia “needs to consider the circumstances of the transition period and a possible reaction of the U.S. president-elect.”

 

 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com

via http://ift.tt/2id7L6w The_Real_Fly

As the first family enjoys their 29th, and last, vacation on the taxpayer dime, we thought it would be appropriate to highlight just how much money the Obama’s have spent on expensive golf resorts, exclusive beach villas and African safaris over the past 8 years.  Per a study conducted by Judicial Watch, taxpayers will have spent nearly $90 million on vacations for the first family after their current, annual trip to Hawaii wraps up on January 2nd. 

Of course, with each trip to Obama’s home state costing $3 – $4 million a pop, it’s not difficult to see how the costs add up quickly.  As McClatchy points out, the cost of Air Force One, fighter jet escorts, helicopters, cargo planes, secret service advance teams, etc. can get costly.

The cost of Air Force One and other government planes as well as helicopters, cargo planes, armored cars, Secret Service protection and advance, communications and medical staff has led Judicial Watch to push for less personal travel.

 

“The Secret Service and the Air Force are being abused by unnecessary travel,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said. “Unnecessary presidential travel for fundraising and luxury vacations on the taxpayers’ dime would be a good target for reform for the incoming Trump administration.”

But we don’t fault him, all that time spent fundraising and signing executive orders is really exhausting. 

 

To put things into perspective, the Obama’s took a total of 29 vacations over their eight years in the White House spanning 228 days.  At an aggregate cost of $90 million, that equates to roughly $400,000 per day or $3.1 million per trip.  As a side note, the aggregate vacation time implies that Obama spent nearly 63% of one of his eight years in office, on vacation.

Of course, none of the vacation expenditures above capture the money spent on Obama’s fundraising trips to fill the coffers of the DNC and/or to campaign for Hillary Clinton.

Judicial Watch has been trying to calculate the price tag of Obama personal trips for years through public records requests. It recently received records on Obama’s trips to New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Palm City, Florida, in 2014 and 2015 in which he raised money, campaigned and golfed. The group says the cost was $286,000 solely for Secret Service travel and accommodations.

 

Some trips included the entire family, while others included one other member. Most trips of the first lady and daughters are not publicized and remain unknown. But Judicial Watch has received some records about some of those trips, including the family’s trip to New York and first lady Michelle Obama’s ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, as well as several of Barack Obama’s golf outings.

 

And while Obama’s proponents often site George W. Bush’s vacation days in defense of the current first family, they tend to omit the fact that the majority of Bush’s vacations were to his home in Texas or his family’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

By comparison, President George W. Bush made 77 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 490 days, and 11 visits to his family’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine, spanning all or part of 43 days, according to Knoller.

Dear President-elect Trump, we think we’ve found another ~$90mm-ish you can cut from future budgets.

via http://ift.tt/2iJW0S6 Tyler Durden

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

I recently penned a post discussing various data points which were hitting record levels. To wit:

“First, “record levels” of anything are records for a reason. It is the point at which previous limits were reached. Therefore, when a ‘record level’ is reached, it is NOT THE BEGINNING, but rather an indication of the MATURITY of a cycle. While the media has focused on employment, record stock market levels, etc. as a sign of an ongoing economic recovery, history suggests caution.  The 4-panel chart below suggests that current levels should be a sign of caution rather than exuberance.”

I want to add to the list above with 3-more indicators which are hitting historically high levels as well. Once again, while the mainstream media is touting exuberance over these high levels, my contention is they should be eliciting a sign of caution.

Consumer Confidence

There are many measures of consumer confidence but two of the most widely watched are the University of Michigan (UofM) and Conference Board (CB) surveys. Since the election both measures have independently soared sharply as “hope” has emerged that President-elect Trump can cause real economic change through tax reform, infrastructure spending and the return of jobs back to America. It’s a tall order to fill and there is much room for disappointment, but for now, “hope” is in the driver’s seat and according to the latest readings consumer sentiment has reached levels not seen since the turn of the century.

The chart below is a composite index of the average of the UofM and CB survey readings for consumer confidence, consumer expectations, and current conditions. The horizontal dashed lines show the current readings of each composite back to 1957.

Importantly, as noted above, high readings of the index are not unusual. It is also worth noting that high readings are historically more coincident with a late stage expansion, and a leading indicator of an upcoming recession, rather than a start of an economic expansion.

The next chart shows the same analysis as compared to the S&P 500 index. The dashed vertical lines denote peaks in the consumer composite index.

Again, not surprisingly, when consumer confidence has previously reached such lofty levels, it was towards the end of an expansion and preceded either a notable correction or a bear market.

Importantly, corrections did not always follow immediately after high levels were reached and that is not the point to be made. What is important to understand is all cycles have a beginning and an end and by the time any previous record has been broken, it has always marked the beginning of the end of the current cycle.

ECRI Leading vs. Lagging

A colleague and friend of mine is an avid follower of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) data as it relates to economic cycles. While I don’t ascribe to the data as closely as he does, only because I use several other data sets that tell me roughly the same thing, I did note the ECRI Weekly Leading Index (WLI) just spiked to a peak not seen since 2007.

There is a very close correlation between the ECRI WLI and GDP as shown in the chart below. I have also included the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) which is a very broad measure of economic activity consisting of roughly 85 subcomponents.

Importantly, there is currently a rather significant divergence between the WLI and CFNAI measures. Historically, such divergences tend to correct themselves over the next several months with the WLI correcting back towards the CFNAI.

Furthermore, there is also a significant divergence in the ECRI leading and lagging data sets. These two data sets were very closely correlated until the turn of the century where they have become increasingly more detached. This is one reason, I suspect, the ECRI has struggled in recent years with its economic forecasts to some degree.

We can take these two indices and create an effective “book-to-bill” ratio by subtracting the lagging index (what actually happened) from the leading index (what we expect to happen). What we find is very interesting. The current level of the leading-lagging index has plummeted to the lowest levels on record with historical spikes lower associated with recessionary economic periods.

Of course, ongoing Central Bank interventions have seemingly prevented the onset of an economic recession in the U.S. currently. While this “time may be different,” I would remain exceedingly cautious betting on such an outcome.

10-Year Treasury Net Longs Suggest Retracement

Speaking of “contrarian” indications, there is an overwhelming consensus following the election the replacement of monetary with fiscal policy is the “cure to economic growth” which has been missing. As such, interest rates have risen giving rise to the belief the “30-year bond bull market” is finally dead.

This may be a bit premature.

First, the policies currently being proposed from tax repatriation (Bush, 2004), tax cuts (Bush, 2001, 2003. Obama, 2010, 2012) and infrastructure spending (Obama, 2009) have, as noted, all been done before. While these actions did lead to short-term increases in rates, these policies were more beneficial to corporate bottom lines than actual economic growth.

As discussed previously:

“With global rates near zero or negative, money will continue to chase U.S. Treasuries for the higher yield. This will continue to push yields lower as the global economy continues to slow. What would cause this to reverse? It would require either an economic rebound as last seen in 50’s and 60’s, or a complete loss of faith in the U.S. to pay its debts through either default or the onset of the ‘zombie apocalypse.'” 

Secondly, and from a pure investment standpoint, the positioning in 10-year Treasuries has returned to more extreme levels. As noted by the vertical dashed lines, when the 4-week moving average of net positioning rises sharply it has typically denoted a short-term peak in rates.

Not surprisingly, with everyone on the “same side of the trade,” any exogenous event which triggers a movement in the opposite direction tends to result in a stampede. 

Furthermore, as I addressed in detail recently, a bulk of the rate rise since the lows has been directly related to rebalancing of holdings following Brexit and a fight by China to stabilize the collapse of the Yuan. To wit:

“It is important to understand that foreign countries “sanitize” transactions with the U.S. by buying treasuries to keep currency exchange rates stable. As of late, China has been dumping U.S Treasuries and converting the proceeds back into Yuan in an attempt to stop the current decline. The stronger dollar and weaker yuan increase the costs of imports into China from the U.S. which negatively impacts their economy. This relationship between the currency exchange rate and U.S. Treasuries is shown below. “

When this rebalancing ends, a potential reversal in rates back towards 2% would not be surprising. This will particularly be the case as deflationary pressures from the expected Trump policies take root over the next several quarters.

The next chart shows the weekly number of net contracts on the 10-year Treasury currently outstanding compared to the S&P 500.  At the second highest level on record, such a contrarian positioning should provide some pause. Peaks in net positioning have often been associated with short to intermediate-term corrections, or worse, in the markets. 

These are only a few of the indicators currently hitting more extreme levels. There are many more and they should not be dismissed in “hopes” things could be different this time. Maybe they will be, and the markets will rise indefinitely into the future. Since portfolios are already allocated to the markets, such an outcome will be welcome.

But, what if “this time is not different?”

Do you have the savings and investment time horizon to once again get back to even?

Do you have a plan of action to manage the unexpected?

“Hope” isn’t a plan to effectively deal with risks.

“It is always easier to regain a lost opportunity than trying to regain lost capital.” 

Just some things I am thinking about.

 

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Interesting day…

 

Bonds & Bullion now outpacing stocks post-Fed… (and bank stocks are down 1.6% post-fed)

 

Once again the opening ramp but it was lackluster as hopes for Dow 20,000 are dashed for now as pension rebalancing (and front-running tax-selling) accelerates…WTF was that idiotic panic buying atthe close in Small Caps!??

 

On the week, Trannies are worst…

 

VIX briefly tagged 13.5 today with The Dow now 200 points from Dow 20k…

 

Utilities are now the only sector green post-Xmas with financials underperforming… Financials biggest 2-day drop in 3 months

 

5Y yields dropped below 2.00% for the first time in 10 days, 10Y below 2.50%, and 3Y below 1.50% following the super strong 7Y auction…NOTE the 10Y yield briefly dipped lower post-Fed intraday but 30Y is -5bps…

This is the best 2 day drop in 5Y yields (-10bps) since June 27th.

As a reminder, despite the non-stop spewing on mainstream media, the yield curve is notably flatter post-Trump… not steeper!

 

The USD Index tumbled most since november 1st…

 

Led by JPY strength (on bank derisking following Toshiba contagion)

 

USD weakness sent PMs and copper higher but crude fell after inventory data…

 

WTI broke its 8-day win streak…

 

Gold is now up 5 days in a row…longest streak since before election

 

But we note that of all the precious metals, only Palladium is green post-Trump…

 

For the first time in the contracts' history, the Jan/Feb Gasoline spread has moved into backwardation (Bloomberg reports that recent regional refinery outages at PES Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc. and Irving Oil Lt.’s Saint John unit have limited supplies to New York Harbor, pushing front month contracts higher than the forward period).

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Filmmaker Michael Moore is calling for mass demonstrations and disruptions to the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

The outspoken liberal filmmaker suggested on Facebook his "5 Things You Can Do Right Now About Donald J. Trump," outlining a plan for sustained resistance to Trump's agenda.

It's been seven weeks since Hillary beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes but lost the presidency to him. So if your head is still spinning from that mindf***, or you can't quite believe a malignant narcissist will now sit in the Oval Office, or if you are simply still working your way through the 17 stages of grief, then I am here to say to you, "There's no crying in TrumpLand — Let's get to work!" All hands on deck! Brush your yourself off and let's get busy because: a) All hope is not lost; b) There are more of us than there are of them; and c) The roadside is littered with the ended careers of self-absorbed, narcissistic politicians whose arrogance led them to do things that caused their early resignation or impeachment. Don't think that can't happen here.

 

I do not say these things because I am filled with optimism. In fact, I think the first thing we all have to do in order to move on is to admit out loud what we already think privately: As bad as we know it's going to be, it's actually going to be worse. A lot worse. Now cheer up and read on…

THE FIVE THINGS EACH OF US MUST DO THIS WEEK

 

1. MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN. Your Senators and Members of Congress are home right now, in your town (or a nearby town), for their holiday break. Their office is open! You don't need an appointment. Just show up (to find out where the local office is click here: http://ift.tt/P3cvWa and type in your zip code). Go there (take a friend!), walk in and say "I'm a constituent and I'd like a few minutes with my Congressman/woman." He/she may be busy, so tell them you'd like to speak to someone on the staff for a couple minutes. Most local congressional offices are LOATHE to turn anyone away because to them you are that one vote who could vote them out of office. Tell the person you get to speak to why you want the Congressman to block all the damage Trump is going to do (cite examples). If he/she is a Republican, they will explain why they "support the new President." You then must politely tell them you and everyone you know will work to unseat them in 2018 if they don't act independently from Trump. The calmer and cooler you say this, the more they will believe it. If your rep is a Democrat, tell him/her that you expect them to AGGRESSIVELY fight the Trump agenda — and if they don't, you will work with others to support a true progressive in the Democratic primary in 2018. Tell them that millions of us will do what the Tea Party did to the Republicans: primary them and toss them out of office. Say it politely, thank them, then leave. You actually showing up in person to do this is as powerful as 100 letters or a large demonstration on the street in front of their office. Do this and post it on social media. Post it on my Facebook or Twitter and I'll try to re-post/tweet as many as I can.

 

2. WRITE TO THE DNC TONIGHT. It will take 5 minutes. Send a quick email to the Democratic National Committee (http://ift.tt/1M5uQhi) and tell them you want them to elect Congressman Keith Ellison as the new chairperson of the Democratic Party. He is the future and everyone else is the past. Here's what the old guard gave us: TWICE in 16 years the Democratic candidate WON the vote for President but LOST the White House. Incredible! This has to stop! Ellison and the progressive wing of the party must take us forward. Keith has the backing of Bernie Sanders and myself, but also the endorsement of some of the old guard who've come around to see the error of past ways (Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, etc.). In addition to being born in Detroit, spending his adulthood as a community organizer and now representing the Twin Cities in the House, Ellison is also the only Muslim member of Congress. He was one of the few members of Congress brave enough to back Bernie. He will fight to turn this around and, as a son of the Midwest, bring that part of the country back from the dark side. Let's flood the DNC with emails tonight (and cc: the your state Democratic Party, too – you can look up their email address on Google).

 

3. FORM YOUR OWN RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. By New Year's Day this Sunday, I want you to ask 5 to 10 friends, family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors to be part of your Rapid Response Team. Pick a name for it — the "Doyle Family Rapid Response Team", the "Oak Street Rapid Response Team", the "Seabrook High School Rapid Response Team", the "Gilmore Girls Fan Club Rapid Response Team", etc. Set a plan to contact each other online as soon as word goes out on any given day to oppose what Trump and Congress are up to. Your Rapid Response Team will agree with each other to email elected reps, make calls, post on social media, go to protests and/or organize others at work, school or in the neighborhood. Through my own social media sites, as stuff happens, I will send out instructions immediately as to what we all must do. Sign up now to follow me on my Facebook (facebook.com/mmflint) and Twitter (twitter.com/mmflint) if you don't already. Form your team this week. I'm personally organizing a Rapid Response Team in the apartment building where I live. We need to get prepared and be ready now. If we wait til late January to organize, it will be too late.

 

4. MAKE PLANS NOW TO BE AT THE INAUGURATION WEEKEND PROTESTS! We need millions in the streets in DC — and that's what it looks like it's shaping up to be. The big march will be the day after the Inauguration – the Million Women March on January 21st. Click here for details http://ift.tt/2fIH9cw. On January 20th – Inauguration Day – a call has been gone out to non-violently disrupt the proceedings. Go to http://ift.tt/2g8Pozl and learn about civil disobedience on that day. Planes and trains are already selling out, as are hotels. Contact the above sites to get info on buses and housing (or charter your own bus from your town). Everyone who can should be there. If you can't make it, find (or organize) a local protest in your area. Take the day off. No one should be silent that day.

 

5. YOU SHOULD RUN FOR OFFICE. Yes, YOU. Why not? Who else do you think is going to do it? I'm not saying you have to be the next Senator from Michigan, but why not run for State Rep. or school board or city council? At the very least, run for precinct delegate in the local Democratic Party. It's time to stop carping about politicians and become one. But a different kind of one! I ran for and got elected to the school board at 18-years old. Form your campaign committee now for the elections in 2017 and 2018. (If you need me, I'll even offer to be your honorary chair!) You know you can do this. We have no choice. We've left it up to others – yes, Democrats – and they are inept and continual losers. Haven't you had enough? Run for office, any office!

 

There you go. 5 Easy Pieces. Start tonight. And spread this around. ALL HANDS ON DECK!

While careful to specifically call for peaceful protest, one wonders how liable he could be if things turn "aggressive" as he mentions… and whether US Code-Section 879 comes into effect.

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Via Dana Lyons' Tumblr,

The S&P 500 has now tied a record with 9 consecutive days trading within the range set 10 days ago; what are the ramifications of the streak and its resolution?

Last Monday, we noted that for the first time in the history of the S&P 500, the index put together 3 consecutive Inside Days. That is, for 3 straight days, the high-low range was inside the range of the preceding day. We have no record of that ever occurring since the inception of the index in 1950. As noted in that post, “the idea behind the supposed usefulness of such events is that it signifies a contraction in prices and indecision among investors. Trading textbooks would say that whichever way prices eventually break out of such a contraction (i.e., up or down), it is likely to determine the direction of the subsequent trend.” While no signal works 100% of the time, a study into price behavior following historical Double Inside Days in the S&P 500 did provide evidence for the theory that the direction of the initial breakout is a good indicator of the direction of the subsequent trend.

Well, since the S&P 500 initially broke the Triple Inside Days by putting in a higher high on December 20, the suggestion was that more upside was to follow. That hasn’t panned out – yet. The index closed today roughly 1% below its “breakout” close. So, it has work to do if it is going to perform according to the textbooks.

While that unprecedented inside streak came to an end, there is another inside streak that also reached an all-time record today. As mentioned, December 20′s high was higher than December 19′s high, breaking the consecutive Inside Day streak. However, if we look at the range of the day, December 14, that marked the beginning of the Triple Inside Days, we notice something quite remarkable. The high on December 14 was 2276.20 and the low was 2248.44. During the 9 trading days since, the S&P 500 has been unable to either eclipse that high or drop below that low. This is just the 2nd time in the history of the index that it has traded for 9 straight days without moving beyond the range set 10 days ago.

If we want to study price behavior following similar historical occurrences, obviously we need to relax the parameters given the fact that there is just a singular precedent: June 28, 2006. Therefore, we looked for instances of 5 consecutive days trading within the range of 6 days prior. This yielded 14 previous events since 1960.

 

In reviewing the data, we could not discern any clues as to the direction of the eventual range break based upon the lead up to the inside streak. Thus, as the chart shows, we broke down the 14 events based on which direction they broke out of the range. Here are the dates on which the streaks reached 5 days, the number of days the streaks would reach, and the direction of the range break:

04/20/1966   5   Up
09/19/1972   6   Down
03/02/1987   6   Up
09/23/1988   8   Up
11/03/1988   6   Down
07/30/1990   7   Down
10/12/1992   5   Up
03/19/1993   5   Down
03/15/1996   6   Up
10/01/1996   5   Up
06/09/2000   5   Down
06/22/2006   9   Up
11/16/2011   5   Down
09/19/2016   6   Up
12/21/2016   9   ?

FYI, the range on December 14 was about 1.2% wide. Interestingly, despite the fact that our present streak is tied for the longest, only the October 1996 event saw a smaller range (1.1%) in the engulfing day.

By parsing the occurrences based upon the direction of the range break, we can see again if there is any evidence to back up the notion that it will consistently lead to a further move in that direction. And once again, we found evidence to back up that notion.

 

Of course the 1 Day returns include the initial range-breaking day and, thus, by definition, are all positive for the 8 upside resolution events and all negative for the 6 downside resolution events. That Day 1 also has some impact on subsequent returns. Nevertheless, we see that the returns are quite consistent in displaying follow through in the direction of the breakout. All but one of the upside resolution events were positive, from 1 day to 1 year. On the flip side, a majority of the downside resolution events showed negative returns from 1 day to 1 month.

We are not going to put too much weight into this phenomenon, vis-a-vis its eventual resolution. And to the extent that we do place any weight, it would just be in the near-term, e.g., up to 1 month. Any long-term conclusions, despite the fact that we have included them here, is probably a reach. 14 events is also a small sample size.

Those disclaimers aside, like the study into Double Inside Days, there is nothing in the results of this post that would suggest going against the textbook, directionally, once the range is finally broken.

*  *  *

More from Dana Lyons, JLFMI and My401kPro.

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The following tweet, just sent out by the traditionally outspoken Russian Embassy in the UK, hardly needs commentary.

President Obama expels 35 ???????? diplomats in Cold War deja vu. As everybody, incl ???????? people, will be glad to see the last of this hapless Adm. http://pic.twitter.com/mleqA16H8D

— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) December 29, 2016

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As part of the “evidence” meant to substantiate the unprecedented act of expelling 35 Russian diplomats and locking down two Russian compounds without a major concurrent political or diplomatic incident, or an act of war, and which simply provides an outlets for the Democrats to justify the loss of their candidate in the US presidential election (sorry, Putin did not tell the rust belt how to vote), the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released a 13-page “report” on the Russian action done “to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election”, i.e., hack it.

As the DHS writes, “this document provides technical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military intelligence Services (RIS) to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities. The U.S. Government is referring to this malicious cyber activity by RIS as GRIZZLY STEPPE.”

Where things get awkward, however, is at the very start of the report, which prefaced by a broad disclaimer, according to which nothing in the report is to be relied upon and that everything contained in it may be completely false.

No really: “this report is provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within. DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service referenced in this advisory or otherwise.”

Which then begs the question who provides warranties of any kind to the allegation that Russia hacked the election, the 13-page report supposedly provides technical details regarding tools and infrastructure used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services to “compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities.”

So with that useful background in mind, we present some more notable excerpts from the report, where we get an introduction to the alleged Russian “parties” –  APT and APT 28. and note that nowhere in the report is it actually confirmed that these are the two alleged hackers or that they were instructed to “hack” the DHS (or the election as Obama puts it) by the Kremlin.

The U.S. Government confirms that two different RIS actors participated in the intrusion into a U.S. political party. The first actor group, known as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29, entered into the party’s systems in summer 2015, while the second, known as APT28, entered in spring 2016.

 

 

Both groups have historically targeted government organizations, think tanks, universities, and corporations around the world. APT29 has been observed crafting targeted spearphishing campaigns leveraging web links to a malicious dropper; once executed, the code delivers Remote Access Tools (RATs) and evades detection using a range of techniques. APT28 is known for leveraging domains that closely mimic those of targeted organizations and tricking potential victims into entering legitimate credentials. APT28 actors relied heavily on shortened URLs in their spearphishing email campaigns. Once APT28 and APT29 have access to victims, both groups exfiltrate and analyze information to gain intelligence value. These groups use this information to craft highly targeted spearphishing campaigns. These actors set up operational infrastructure to obfuscate their source infrastructure, host domains and malware for targeting organizations, establish command and control nodes, and harvest credentials and other valuable information from their targets.

While there is more in the report below, essentailly what it does is blames several “known” Russian hacking organizations for what was simply a very unsophisticated phishing attack, one which could have been conducted by any 15-year-old in Cambodia or any other location around the globe.

The report comes as part of a slate of retaliatory measures against Russia issued Thursday by the Obama administration in response to the hacks. The Intelligence Community in October formally attributed the attacks to Russia, but provided no evidence to support its assessment.  It is unclear if this report, for which the DHS “does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding” its contents is what is supposed to pass off as “proof” that Russia hacked the US election; if so, Putin will indeed be laughing all night.

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Having already made it clear that any sanctions would be met with retaliation, IFX reports that Russian Commissioner Foreign Ministry on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov exclaimed that "any anti-Russian sanctions are futile and counter-productive."

Via IFX (Google Translate)

Keyed US anti-Russian sanctions in connection with the alleged cyber attacks from Moscow are counterproductive and are intended to cause damage including the future of the process of restoring bilateral relations, said Commissioner Foreign Ministry on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, via "Interfax" .

 

"Any anti-Russian sanctions are futile and counter-productive," he said.

 

"I can only reconfirm that this hysteria demonstrates the complete lack of orientation by the outgoing US administration," said the Russian diplomat

 

"Such unilateral steps are pursuing the aim of damage relations and complicate their recovery in the future", – he said.

 

As a reminder, Russia had pre-emptively warned of retaliation…

The outgoing US administration still hopes to finally have time to do something else for bad relations with Russia, and so she brought down. With clearly inspired leaks in the American media have once again trying to scare the extension of anti-Russian sanctions measures "diplomatic" and even sabotage against our computer systems. And this last "Christmas greetings" from the Obama team, already preparing for eviction from the White House cynically want to present as a reaction to certain "cyber attack from Moscow."

 

Frankly, we are tired of the lies about the "Russian hackers", which continues to flow into the United States from the very top. The Obama administration has launched six months ago, this misinformation in an attempt to play up the desired for himself a candidate in the November presidential election, and not achieving the desired, looking for an excuse for their own failure, and with a vengeance is played on Russian-American relations.

 

But the truth of the provocation orchestrated by the White House, sooner or later will still come out. Yes, it's already happening. How else to December 8 reported the US media, the State of Georgia State Secretary Brian Kemp he said that the authorities in the region followed where came hacker attack on its electronic system of vote counting shortly after the election. Footprints led to the computer at the US Department of Homeland Security. This information quickly tried to cover up the stream of new anti-Russian charges that do not contain a single proof.

 

It only remains to add that if Washington really takes new hostile steps, it will get the answer. This also applies to any action against Russian diplomatic missions in the United States, which immediately ricocheted on US diplomats in Russia. Perhaps the Obama administration is quite indifferent to what will happen to the bilateral relations, but the story is unlikely to forgive her behavior on the principle of "after us the deluge."

In other words, Europe is about to get screwed again.

Sanctions certainly did not hurt before…

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