For the sake of objectivity, i need to say and let you all know that most of the graphs circulating on Twitter today, are fake generated AI being reposted by people who should know better regarding Information Literacy and at least seek some sort of verification.
But no doubt, the bot activity is much, much down. But be aware,please, that a lot of this is horribly sourced with lots of fake links.
There, now I have done my duty. A duty I fucking hate to do.
In general, it enrages me that well payed academics that one is supposed to be able to trust, has no fucking information literacy at all, but just uncritically retweets. Thus, a snowball becomes a snowman quite easilly because of course, people will trust professors and generals etc.
But one shouldnât unfortunately. Not always.
Need proper sourcing from credible reports.
Like above, I donât know if those are fake or not. I hope not. I donât know. I just know that much of it is fake or exaggerated. Thatâs the issue. Donât know. Need verification. I havenât had time to google today and I am very busy with work today, so must leave that to others.
I hate the Inependent due to being clickbaity after they got new owners, but this article (which I havenât had time to read properly but just skimmed) show cases my point above and might work as a counter point:
tbh, doesnât matter if the article I now posted contains minor errors. Because it highlights my point. Not all of this is GRU, SVR, or FSB bot traffic and that is important to understand, I think.
Academic integrity out of the way and dealt with, I can now go back to saying nasty things about Russia and Trump.
I am waiting for the twitter post quoting Roy Keaneâs comment on the destruction of Russian Bot farms
"So the bot farm gets bombed and the internetâs gone quiet. Everyoneâs delighted. Lovely. Pat on the back all round. Well, Iâm not having it. Ukraine hits a bot farm, and suddenly itâs all âheroesâ and âlegendsâ. Do you want a medal? Take out the bots. Thatâs your job.
And you know its a real quote because here is a pic of him talking into a microphone
You are so on point ! 
Personal note: I just want to note that when I said âI hate itâ above, it is because it makes me very uncomfortable, because I know when I write such âcorrectionsâ, it sounds abrasive (or like Dane on a normal day, and I think he will forgive me for noting that if he has self-irony, which I hope he has). Itâs deeply unpleasant for me (because I am not really an abrasive man but a âsoftieâ). Perhaps that is surprising for people, since I always do this, but itâs very uncomfortable for me in fact.
I just do it anyway, and always will.
(I suppose I am scared that @Livvy will think I was insinuating she made a mistake or made some sort of sly dig. I wasnât. I almost never insinuate if I can help it and I never make sly digs since I like directness in the written form, and even often react very badly myself to âslyâ and think it quite honourless tbh)
There, now I said that little personal note. Just wanted to clear this out, in the hope that no one takes offence when I write such things as I did above.
Reason I feel the need to say this at all, is that I have been misunderstood in the past, which led to quite some frustration as someone got hurt. Thatâs never the intention unless I make it obvious.
I am biased as I have followed this guy for years from the start of his truly excellent public health podcast pre covid, but this is dynamite
https://x.com/commons96055467/status/2108967069689708860?s=20
âWhat did his healthcare book say? Did you read it? He didnt write a healthcare book. He couldnt write a healthcare bookâ
Holy shit, I just read that Homeland security did a raid on Ilhan Omarâs home this morning as part of an investigation that her now deceased father incorrectly filled out her paperwork when she was a child 4 decades ago
Interestingly, I read something yesterday that Warnock is very close to announcing his candidacy. Old rules would say that you dont have 2 sitting senators from the same state running for the same nomination at the same time, especially not two who are as close as these two are.
I donât know that old rules should or do still hold though.
This is politically motivated and therefore extra awful, but to be very honest, even the Norwegian system is unforgiving like that. If you came as a family and lied about your asylum application and the state finds out 10-15 years later, you will get deported, though not if you were underage. This can split families in an awful way though, as parents get deported, but the children can sometimes choose to remain.
It is harsh.
I dont think many believe there is an actual legit predicate for pursuing this, but even if there was and they found issues with this 40 year old paperwork, the US system does have protections for that for those who were minors at the time.
Before 2020, even children would have been deported in Norway (unless they are alone, then of course, no deportation), but there has been some very high profile cases in latter decades, which made parliament enact a law that protects children if they have their roots in Norway and more affiliation with Norway and Norwegian culture than the home country of their parents.
But the Norwegian State, the Directorate of Immigration, is brutal and blind. I know, I worked at an asylum reception for a year and have many tragedies I am not allowed to tell. Bureaucratic systemic brutality with little mercy for individual cases that do not fit the square box that grants you permanent stay in Norway.
However, that is different to your example of course. What you point to is just awful since it is clearly not objective (not a blind lady justice) but as you say, political. I donât understand that it is possible to use the US system like that, but it clearly is.
Theyâve just decided they dont give a shit. Trump is legally immune after the supreme court decision and everyone else appears to be working on the understanding that anything dubious done in his interest will be pardened.
It seems small potatoes given everything, but heâs been trying to bulldoze public land in DC to to golf club renovations, had a court order preventing the work going ahead and today they just flattened and dug up a large collection of trees to prep the land. The government lawyers got hauled in front of the judge who went to town on them and the reaction appears to have been âwhat are you going do about it?â
We are in a state of utter lawlessness.
Itâs just sad.
And personally, I find it more than a bit frightening due to the intense soft power bleed-over from US politics into European politics.
The saddest cases I know of, are those cases where the asylum applicant (many years after usually) has given incorrect information on their origin country and/or geographical area, but would have been granted asylum if they were honest. Usually, human traffickers or other people in their country of origin or on the road here, will have told them to lie about X to get a better chance at a stay. And if you have lied, the Sword of Damocles will hang over their head for decades. The state generally always finds out you lied, and then you are fucked 20 years down the line when exposed.
The worst thing is that if you work in an asylum reception, you are not allowed to inform an applicant that their application will be turned down (which would have been far better for them, so they could prepare for it and not just go around for months and sometimes years, being hopeful; with their lives at a complete pause).
We were just allowed to inform them about the general law and general rules. You are not allowed to tell them, even if it is beyond obvious that they will not be granted stay. They have to intepret the information you give them themselves. You give them as clear information as we can, but some of them are not literate and some of them will think the general rules maybe donât always apply, even if you tell them they do.
Itâs emotionally harsh to observe, knowing, but not being allowed to tell because it breaks with directive x. Because they ask you: âDo you think I will be allowed to stay?â and similar questions, and you cannot give them a direct answer. You must just fucking parrot the rules and tell them that if they check those boxes, then they will, but if not, they will be deported. You can hint strongly, but not give a direct answer despite knowing 100%. But to so many, hinting is not enough because they lack comprehension regarding the ârules absolutely always applyâ part, despite you trying to desperatly teach them just that.
Glad I donât work with that anymore. I didnât really like it. I like helping people, but it was frustrating not being able to be crystal clear when it so clearly would have been the most humane thing to do.
Apologies for the OTT, I guess. I suppose I just wanted to tell how it works here and what my experience is regarding how it works.
Yep, hundreds of mature oaks and maple trees were felled. He just does what he wants.
Why arenât there people chaining themselves to the trees?
They did it very quickly, and announced it afterwards.
Yeah get out of the quickly-becoming-a-third-world-hole for deplorables while you still can.
Removal of that many adult oaks, is something your grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grandchildren will be saddened by. If the ecosystem exists that far into the futureâŚ
