April 21, 2019

I was manipulated by the Russians, and we must assume everyone was.

After reading the Mueller report it's clear that Hillary and Bernie supporters were pitted against each other on purpose in 2016 in order to elect Trump and we need to recognize this. After the 2016 elections I deleted my Facebook account and limited my social media to creating book reviews on Instagram. I'm wary to be on the internet in a political context and my trust in online news sources started on this very website. I think everyone should be on high alert while being on the internet in a political context because there is no stopping the Russians from manipulating again in 2020. I'm hoping 2016 was a vaccine and we know what to do and what to look for, but we're at risk of it being a true illness that we can't shake off.

These are rules that I personally go by now:

1. SLOW DOWN to fact check. The information age gives you 20 facts a day but the other 19 facts can wait their turn. Categorize by importance first. If there is an original source, read that.
2. Avoid and don't trust political internet memes altogether. Same with short YouTube videos since those can give false context. Only trust full unedited videos.
3. Go to candidates websites for their platforms, do not let others tell you what they are. Try to establish voting records yourself, don't let others tell you what they are.
4. Support Journalists. Buy and read your news offline.
6. Don't limit who you talk to, break bubbles. With the exception of if you feel unsafe doing so.
7. But most importantly slow down. You do not have to know 5 new things before breakfast!

I hope others have made their own precautions since the 2016 election as well. We must look at how we want the same things.

Edit: okay if you don't want to be open to the possibility that you were manipulated, go at it. But that leaves you open to thinking you can't ever be manipulated. Please take precautions regardless.

April 21, 2019

I'm counting The Mueller Report as a book.

Who's with me?

April 21, 2019

My impressions of volume 1 of the Mueller report.

Note: I am a regular citizen who hasn't kept up with much of anything of the Russia investigation (besides what my very political family has happened to mention to me,) this is not an expert analysis and my brain hurts from reading so much in so little time. I feel like I know enough to explain my impressions though. I would have started reading it the day it came out, but I didn't actually think it was released to the public for some reason? Yesterday I got to page 92. I've read 115 pages today. The second volume that deals with obstruction of justice starts on page 208. I'll start on that tomorrow.

First thought: What the fuck is HOM? *looks on google* Great, nothing. That is one of the redactions that is used, did figure out that means Harm to Ongoing Matter but it took me awhile to connect it for some reason. The main three redactions used to cover up are HOM, Investigation technique and Grand Jury.

It begins by explaining that collusion isn't actually a crime, the crime that Mueller was investigating for was Conspiracy. Conspiracy is where you have to find two parties agreeing. That was not found? Well, there wasn't enough to convict anyone of it, put it that way. Except possibly Trump Jr. but he's a moron that wasn't the main person who would have created the conspiracy. I also wrote down from that part, "A statement that the investigation did not establish facts does not mean there was no evidence of these facts." From page 10. Dunno, seemed important.

When the dialog truly starts, it explains what Russia actually did. It's supposed to start on page 19, but so much is redacted, you might as well start on page 33. I think how much the Russians involved themselves with social media was known, but I don't think the full extension of what they did has been laid out like this. The social media front seems on a grander scale, and the hacking into Hillary Clinton's campaign was a lot more than I initially thought they hacked into. The main take-away is that Russia was eager to do as much as possible to get Trump elected and to smear Hillary and went to great lengths to contact the Trump campaign. But they went into so many different sectors of the U.S. Black lives matters, check. LGBT, check. Tea Partiers, check. You might as well say they were in every part of the online community manipulating. No mention of Jill Stein. One mention of Bernie on page 53, "WikiLeaks also explained, 'we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary ... so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting.'" I feel like the part on page 182-3 sums it up a little by the extent of Russia's crimes with what laws were broken and what they charged the Russians. After those pages they redact SO much.

Then it gets down to business and starts into any connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government. There's a lot of lying about having connections, a lot of, "I cannot recalls" when meeting with Russians and explains how evidence was destroyed or encrypted. There was some gibberish because of the redactions, but I feel like a lot was surprisingly intact. What stuck out to me most was page 137 about Manafort giving over insider campaign polling data to a Russian contact and how the FBI had problems figuring out all he did with deletions and encrypted information. Sure, on page 110 Trump Jr. was eager to get in contact with the Russians, but it shows how that effort fizzled out as far as they could determine. In one of the footnotes there was also a video of Trump asking Russia to look (hack) into Hillary's emails and how they fulfilled his request.

It was the only reference to a youtube video. Then on page 172 the Trump administration was "seeking a secret channel" to the Russian government, a communication loop that others couldn't see.

On page 190 it does go further into the charges against Paul Manafort and Richard gates and further into Flynn charges. Why Trump Jr wasn't charged. (page 193-4) and it goes into what is law, a lot. Which to me is gibberish, partially because at that point of the report I'm just tired and not a lawyer. On page 200 they explain the charges on Papadopoulos but goes on to say that he tried to get in contact with high Russian officials to arrange a possible foreign policy trip and he made a lot of false statements about it to the FBI. Page 202 discusses Flynn's charges, 203 discusses Cohen's charges. Jeff Sessions is on page 205. I point these out because they seem pretty important to look at.

I probably missed some stuff. I just wanted to know what was actually said in the report so that I can filter through the bullshit analysis and insightful analysis so that I could further understand what I read. I end with what was said on page 181.

In sum, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and
individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russian offers of assistance to
the Campaign. In some instances , the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances
the Campaign officials shied away. Ultimately , the investigation did not establish that the
Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference
activities.