
The Redacted Mueller Report - boshomi
https://github.com/gadenbuie/mueller-report
======
tim333
There was some prior discussion here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19691512](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19691512)
(2 days ago, 149 comments)

~~~
arianvanp
I find it very worrisome that it got flagged. There's lots of interesting
things to discuss about the report because it hits many topics we often
discuss on HN. Including security of elections, digital influence, wikileaks,
role of the internet and social media in society. How to keep fake news at a
limit. These are all topics we discuss regularly. I really don't understand
why it's flagged. It isn't even some shitty blog with opinions, it's literally
a link to the actual report...

~~~
tim333
I guess there's a general policy to avoid politics on this site though
sometimes it seems interesting to get an HN take.

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics..."

~~~
boshomi
This is not politics. It is an example of text analyzing using R programming
language and ghostscript (pdftools). ;-)

~~~
xeromal
Would it be ok with you if we replaced the text source with something more
palatable?

------
IIAOPSW
I started reading it when it 4 hours after it came out. I'm only ~40 pages in
but here's my view of things so far.

1\. The report doesn't release any new bombshells. But that doesn't really
make Trump look good because there's a lot of existing controversies.

2\. Anyone who uses the word collusion from now on obviously didn't make it to
page 2. Collusion is not a defined legal term. Muller specifically states this
and further states that he looked very specifically for evidence that members
of the Trump campaign coordinated knowingly with representative's of Russia.
Merely being aware of Russia's efforts and making decisions based on awareness
of Russia was not a crime per se. The key word to look for to identify people
who actually read the thing is "coordination".

3\. Some Trump campaign officials did give material support to IRA efforts
such as giving them campaign signs and materials. However there is no evidence
that any US person knew they were interacting with a foreign agent. The IRA
posed as US citizens and used stolen identities.

4\. The IRA had a shockingly wide reach. 126 million people viewed their
content. The IRA is estimated to have spent 100k USD boosting their posts on
social media. Basically Facebook the product works as intended. Yes Russia
used it and yes it was illegal. But the real frightening thing here is the
extent to which social media gives the illusion of being an open forum of
opinions when the reality is that the thoughts and views the public gets to
see (and adopt for themselves) are completely sold to the highest bidder.
Social media as news is a societal mistake and Russia exploiting this problem
doesn't mean Russia made this problem.

5\. Intelligence services can amplify convenient political movements but
cannot make them out of thin air. This is true of the CIA when people blame
them for their countries problems and it is true of the GRU as well. Russia's
influence campaign consisted of organizing rallies and buying political ads.
These things are only crimes because they were done by a foreign intelligence
service.

6\. Russia also tried to amplify Bernie Sander's campaign. It is unclear if
Trump/Sanders have some policy / ideology that was amenable to Russian
interests or if Russia was simply amplifying whichever candidate it thought
would be generally bad for America.

7\. Manafort was pushing for Trump to offer/recognize a peace proposal between
Russia/Ukraine in the event that he wins. In Manaforts own words this peace
proposal was a back door for Russia to control East Ukraine. If Manafort isn't
a Russian asset serving Russian geopolitical interests then I don't know what
is.

8\. The GRU paid for servers in Arizona as a launch point for their hacks on
the DNC/DCCC. Russia obfuscated their ownership by paying with bitcoins that
they obtained by mining. This sort of money laundering is par for course for
an intelligence agency (see also: CIA and Iran-Contra). The investigative
method is redacted but I strongly suspect blockchain analysis.

9\. The US knows a fair amount about Russian hacking tools and agents and
likely has a sophisticated counter-measure operation. Most of the redacted
stuff had to do with known persons or assets. I expect a raid at some point in
the future.

10\. The obstruction part is in volume II. I'm not there yet but I've heard
some spoilers. Apparently this part is more damning.

11\. The pundits had something to say about the report way too fast to have
possibly read it. I happened to be visiting a nursing home that day and as you
might imagine, Fox news is quite popular with the older demographic. One of
the usual blowhards was loudly informing me what Democrats think of the report
(allegedly mad because it exhonerate's Trump). Just on the timing alone it
should have been clear that this guy didn't read it yet, Democrat's hadn't
read it yet, Democrat's didn't have an opinion yet, and this pundit couldn't
have possibly interviewed any Democrat's to figure out what they think of it
yet. Still here he was and the viewers were nodding along in agreement and
remarking how on point this guy was. Clearly certain news sources had their
story written long before the report even came out. It still gives me whiplash
that Trumpians can bash the media in one breath and then go on to consume
obvious fictitious reporting in the next. We live in a world where it
shouldn't be possible to lie like this because the report is there for anyone
to see it. Instead people are willfully ignorant and tune into whichever
summary fits their priors. Chomsky missed the 6th filter: the viewers
themselves.

11.1 In the coming days, Trump tweets and other right wing media are going to
convince 40% of the country that the report says whatever they want it to say.
Yesterdays NY Post headline read "No Collusion, No Obstruction." A ton of
people are going to read the headline and not any further. This is our post-
truth reality and I hate it.

~~~
ProxCoques
"It is unclear if Trump/Sanders have some policy / ideology that was amenable
to Russian interests or if Russia was simply amplifying whichever candidate it
thought would be generally bad for America."

There is I think some evidence from past activity in eg Ukraine that Russian
propaganda often takes all sides and infects them with distortions,
contradictions and general confusion such that anyone trying to work out what
might actually be happening in reality, can't.

------
spaceheretostay
> [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter]
> IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering
> missions. In June 2014, four IRA employees applied to the U.S. Department of
> State to enter the United States, while lying about the purpose of their
> trip and claiming to be four friends who had met at a party 38 Ultimately,
> two IRA employees -- Anna Bogacheva and Aleksandra Krylova-received visas
> and entered the United States on June 4, 2014.

> Footnote: 40. [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter] 2. U.S.
> Operations Through IRA-Controlled Social Media Accounts Dozens of IRA
> employees were responsible for operating accounts and personas on different
> U.S. social media platforms. The IRA referred to employees assigned to
> operate the social media accounts as "specialists.942 Starting as early as
> 2014, the IRA's U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing
> on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.43 The IRA later added specialists who
> operated on Tumblr and Instagram accounts.44 Initially, the IRA created
> social media accounts that pretended to be the personal accounts of U.S.
> persons. By early 2015, the IRA began to create larger social media groups
> or public social media pages that claimed (falsely) to be affiliated with
> U.S. political and grassroots organizations. In certain cases, the IRA
> created accounts that mimicked real U.S. organizations.

> For example, one IRA-controlled Twitter account, @TEN_GOP, purported to be
> connected to the Tennessee Republican Party.46 More commonly, the IRA
> created accounts in the names of fictitious U.S. organizations and
> grassroots groups and used these accounts to pose as anti-immigration
> groups, Tea Party activists, Black Lives Matter protestors, and other U.S.
> social and political activists.

We live in a wild time. Russia literally sent agents here and registers
countless social media accounts for the specific purpose of destabilizing our
country, stoking violence and aggression, and enabling people here to
circumvent the rule of law and effectively stage a coup that _destroys our
functioning democracy._

~~~
harimau777
Am I the only one who spent much longer than I probably should have shocked
that the Irish Republican Army was still a major player and trying to figure
out why they would spy on America?

~~~
duncan-donuts
I was shocked. I haven’t heard ANYONE say a word about the IRA.

~~~
WaltPurvis
Internet Research Agency

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency)

