BoloOfEarth

RE: projected year-end numbers, that's a decent possibility (and a good point).  However, my thought is that this higher number of apprehensions has less to do with the number of people crossing the border this year as opposed to prior years, than it does with the onus being put upon the USBP by Trump & company to lock up every possible "potential illegal immigrant" in sight.  Perhaps the net is being cast a little too wide?
 
As to difference in how detainees are being handled, I assumed my reference to Simon's post would refer to "catch & release" short-term detainment vs. "zero tolerance" long-term detainment.  So yes, I would expect that a marked increase in volume - especially long-term detainment - would affect service quality.  That's self-evident. 
 
What you might want to be asking is, Didn't anybody in the administration think that vastly increasing the detainment time and number of arrests, without increasing funding for said detainment, would affect service quality?  Either they didn't think of that beforehand or, as I suspect, they really didn't care all that much if it did.

I have to address one point that I keep reading and hearing mistakenly asserted. People entering the United States at other than an established checkpoint, who claim refugee status and request asylum, are not entering the country illegally. American law grants them the right to enter and remain within the United States until their claim for asylum is reviewed. This is done because people suffering persecution in their home countries are rarely allowed to travel freely to points of entry in potential sanctuary countries.
 
Moreover, asylum seekers who enter the United States between those points of entry can exit custody on payment of a bond, and an immigration judge has the jurisdiction to reduce or even waive the bond if circumstances warrant. OTOH people arriving at a point of entry can't pay a bond -- their disposition is wholly at the discretion of ICE officials. Given the publicized attitude of the current American government toward immigrants, that incentivizes crossing the American border at some other location.

I'm not speaking for Grailknight, but I'd think a discussion about differences of scale between Obama's and Trump's administrations might benefit from numbers that covered Obama's administration as well. 
 
Here's something from the Department of Homeland Security's annual report for 2017:

 
Toxxus' figure for 2017 apprehensions is the second line in that table, far right column.  It should be pointed out that the 2018 figure of 404,142 is actually *less* than the apprehensions for 2013 and 2014 (both Obama years).  The 2019 YTD number of 598,714 is certainly higher than the highest listed here (486,651 in 2014), by roughly 23%.
 
So I don't think it's really about the volume of detainees being apprehended.  As Simon points out, the big difference is in how the detainees are being handled. 

RE: projected year-end numbers, that's a decent possibility (and a good point).  However, my thought is that this higher number of apprehensions has less to do with the number of people crossing the border this year as opposed to prior years, than it does with the onus being put upon the USBP by Trump & company to lock up every possible "potential illegal immigrant" in sight.  Perhaps the net is being cast a little too wide?
 
As to difference in how detainees are being handled, I assumed my reference to Simon's post would refer to "catch & release" short-term detainment vs. "zero tolerance" long-term detainment.  So yes, I would expect that a marked increase in volume - especially long-term detainment - would affect service quality.  That's self-evident. 
 
What you might want to be asking is, Didn't anybody in the administration think that vastly increasing the detainment time and number of arrests, without increasing funding for said detainment, would affect service quality?  Either they didn't think of that beforehand or, as I suspect, they really didn't care all that much if it did.

Sorry, things at work and home have been overly busy lately, and I haven't posted in this thread.
 
Hmmm...  belt pouches?  Check.  Skull-and-crossbones?  Check.  Ragged cape?  Check.  So let's take a step back to the 1990s...
 
Who am I?  They call me DeathStone.  Well, the police and media do.  My enemies mainly scream, "Oh no!  Not him!  Please, dear Gaaaa..."
 
(No, I don't need a throat lozenge.  My voice is always this gravelly.)
 
That stone on my forehead?  It lets me see the darkness in men's souls.  Then my touch removes that darkness... along with their skin, some muscle, and most often their ability to continue breathing. 
 
DeathStone!  Hear my name, scum of the Earth, and tremble in fear!
 
(Honestly, get those cough drops away from me.)

I have a suggestion for an origin: the interference with Extradimensional Movement is a side effect of a Malvan time dilation field put in place to neutralize the Elder Worm on that Earth toward the end of their war about 200,000 years ago. The time rate difference is REALLY steep (maybe only dozens of years have passed subjectively, maybe less) and has a very sharp border, so spaceships that cross it are destroyed as the leading sections that leave the field first age thousands of times as fast as the parts still within it. That leaves you with a world ruled by a refugee population of Elder Worm, an enslaved population of early humans, and Middle Paleolithic fauna to provide adventures. Lots of challenges to make it difficult for the Empress or others to gather resources necessary to leave the place once they're there.

Question: am I reading it right, that the blockage to X-Dim movement et.al. is local to this dimension's Earth?
 
If so, can escape/be rescued by simply getting far enough from the planet?

It's a serious leek under his sink.

I think it's eminently more likely that Trump was told up-front about the potential casualties... and he simply didn't pay attention until he asked himself.  It was in one ear, out the other, with nothing in between to impede the progress.
 
He strikes me as the kind of boss that doesn't listen when you suggest a way to fix a problem... and then turns around and suggests the exact same fix as if he came up with it himself.

I think it's eminently more likely that Trump was told up-front about the potential casualties... and he simply didn't pay attention until he asked himself.  It was in one ear, out the other, with nothing in between to impede the progress.
 
He strikes me as the kind of boss that doesn't listen when you suggest a way to fix a problem... and then turns around and suggests the exact same fix as if he came up with it himself.

It should have been "Which one are you -- Edward or Zackery?"  Because then the response could be "I'm both -- Ed Zackery!"
 
Thank yew, thank yew, I'm here all week.  Make sure to tip your waitresses, and try the veal.

Since Sunday was Father's Day, and Monday was my birthday, we pretty much celebrated both at once (on Saturday, because that''s when both kids were available).  Had a nice dinner at Red Lobster, ice cream afterward, and played a game of Discworld (a board / card game I picked up at GenCon) that I won.  (I don't think they just let me win, but maybe they were being very subtle.) 
 
On Monday I got Into the Spiderverse as a gift from my youngest, which we watched Tuesday night.  Lots of fun.

This will be long and off current discussion topics, for which I apologize.
 
As we all know, Donald Trump lies, constantly. Some lies are big, such as his tariffs extracting billions of dollars from China. Some are small, such as denying he said something a few days before, when it’s on film that he said it. Now we’re seeing the consequences with the oil tanker attacks.
 
First, here's a bit of history about why honesty matters.
 
Many years ago when I was in college, I attended a talk sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa that has stuck with me. A University of Washington emeritus professor spoke about his time as an advisor for Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War Two. There was debate in the administration about whether to suppress news about lost battles in the Pacific and about domestic troubles such as labor actions. This professor said no: “The government of the United States of America must never be seen to lie.”
 
His reasoning was simple. Any lie will be exposed, and any suppressed information will get out – and probably sooner rather than later. Any attempt would fail, and reduce American credibility at home and abroad.
 
So why does credibility matter in war? “Today, the truth seems bad for us and good for out enemies. Tomorrow, the truth will be good for us and bad for our enemies.” The Axis powers lied to their people – a lot. It was important, the professor said, that the people of the Axis countries trusted American promises. An in the case of Japan, it was vitally important that the leaders trusted American promises.
 
See, the Roosevelt administration knew Japan couldn’t win. The only questions were how long it would take and how high the cost would be for the US to win. And this was the project of which the professor was a part: “the most precisely focused propaganda campaign in history,” aimed at Emperor Hirohito and the half-dozen or so people with real power in the Japanese government. They had to be convinced that surrender to the US was not suicide. In particular, that the Emperor would be spared.
 
And it worked. Yes, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were important in crushing the will to resist. But the professor believes it helped that for years, very quiet diplomacy had been going on, telling the Japanese high command that unconditional surrender wasn’t really unconditional: The US would be generous in victory, and the Emperor would still live and rule.
 
The Roosevelt administration told the truth about defeats and domestic troubles. And it worked. The back-channel promises were believed, and Hirohito ordered Japan to surrender. The promises were kept, too.
 
Now look at the present. The Trump administration says irrefutable evidence that Iran attacked the oil tankers, though it won’t share anything except a grainy video that proves nothing. And I don’t believe it.
 
Here’s another historical incident. Between the First and Second Gulf Wars, Iraq’s prime minister Tariq Aziz appeared frequently on the BBC to respond to American accusations. He lied, a lot. When BBC presenters called him on his lies, he denied he’d ever said such a thing, even though it was on tape and millions of people had heard him. So when the Bush Jr. administration claimed Iraq still had WMDs, and Aziz insisted that no, Iraq didn’t, I thought Aziz was lying. Turns out, for once he told the truth. I found that the most surprising event of the whole invasion.
 
Okay, it could be Iran attacked the tankers. That’s plausible. The BBC, the Economist and other news sources say the Iranian government is getting desperate, and there are hothead factions that want open confrontation with the US.
 
But I won’t take this administration’s word for it. Trump lies so much, and his officials repeat the lies so much, that I don’t trust anything they claim. I find it equally plausible that someone else attacked the tankers. Either the Trumpies are duped, or they are supporting the fraud.
 
Other countries don’t seem that ready to take the administration’s word for Iran’s guilt, either. That is a loss of American influence, as a direct result of Trump’s lies.
 
So who else might it be? I think Saudi Arabia tops the list of suspects. Experts who claim to know such things say the Saudi government is locked in a struggle against Iran for influence across the Middle East, of which the war in Yemen is merely one front. Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also shown a fondness for dirty tricks (and considerable hot-headedness) in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. So maybe MBS thinks that he can sucker the US into war with Iran and destroying Saudi’s hated rival for him.
 
Could the Trump administration itself be behind the attacks? No. This administration is so leaky it can’t keep anything secret.
 
But the administration has allies: far-right business tycoons who see Trump as the key to lock in their own political influence. Some may be simple plutocrats; others, Evangelical extremists; and others, racists and anti-immigrant bigots. I suppose they could hire mercenaries. (Maybe from Xe, formerly Blackwater, created by one such far-right wacko, Erik Prince.)
 
I would like to believe I’m just being paranoid. After all, treating suspected motivation as evidence is a hallmark of conspiracy theory nuttiness. But enough crazy things – or at least wildly irresponsible things – have happened lately that I can no longer brush aside such suspicions with a jaunty, “Nah, it could never happen.”
 
Dean Shomshak

My name is Wil Wheaton. I Live With Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed.

If you love somebody, set them free. If they return, it means that no one else wanted them either. Set them free again.

Someone needs a couple more levels in Axes.
 

Don't blame a clown for acting like a clown. Instead, ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.

Since Sunday was Father's Day, and Monday was my birthday, we pretty much celebrated both at once (on Saturday, because that''s when both kids were available).  Had a nice dinner at Red Lobster, ice cream afterward, and played a game of Discworld (a board / card game I picked up at GenCon) that I won.  (I don't think they just let me win, but maybe they were being very subtle.) 
 
On Monday I got Into the Spiderverse as a gift from my youngest, which we watched Tuesday night.  Lots of fun.

Since Sunday was Father's Day, and Monday was my birthday, we pretty much celebrated both at once (on Saturday, because that''s when both kids were available).  Had a nice dinner at Red Lobster, ice cream afterward, and played a game of Discworld (a board / card game I picked up at GenCon) that I won.  (I don't think they just let me win, but maybe they were being very subtle.) 
 
On Monday I got Into the Spiderverse as a gift from my youngest, which we watched Tuesday night.  Lots of fun.

Just wanted to give Lord Liaden some well-deserved kudos, not just for sharing this, but also sharing other similar things online to help other Hero posters.  And doing so while properly crediting the original source up-front - you're a class act, LL.

Been watching Young Justice Outsiders...
 
They have some pretty impressive contact lenses, got me thinking about Hero Masks
 
What powers do you build into yours?

To be honest, I don't disallow it either.  However, as it got used more often by the PC hero, I had the bad guys develop defenses against it, with ARGENT producing a neat device that they'll sell to villains for a tidy sum.  (Though I like your idea for dealing with it.)

Professor Paradigm is upset at reality. Why don't people understand that this isn't the way things are supposed to be? Art! Art is the mirror. Here are some great installations to try in your city.
 
i) Professor Paradigm is upset about commuting. Driving too and from work takes up far too much time in people's lives. It's ridiculous, and it can't go on. So let's give this futility some meaning!  Crack all those onboard computers, take control of the cars,  and turn evening drivetime into a ballet that can be viewed from orbit. You'll probably need a few drastic measures like driving a few columns of cars into oncoming traffic and such, but the sacrifices are well worth it. 
 
ii) Speaking of long commutes Professor Paradigm is upset about all those speculator-owned, vacant homes downtown. Homes are for people! And there are powers . . . Which is how those leafy inner suburbs of your city came to be overrun by animated homes, chasing people down the street and . . . I guess not exactly eating them. In fact, 4067 Maple Street's got two people stuffed headfirst in two cute north-facing dormers .(Jennie Oruma and Kyle Schwarzberger. You can tell because Jen was so happy about her black flats that she posted them on Instagram. That's how you can tell that the screaming and the waving feet are Jennie. Kyle's just wearing trainers, but he's screaming, too, so there's that.) Tudor-inspired has heard that "first comes marriage," so now it's chasing Reverend McAlister. Dan is booting it down the street as fast as he can, but Tudor-inspireds are pretty lively houses as these things go. (It's got good lines, not like that blocky modernist down the block that's given up on families and is just trying to get a few seniors. Don't let the walker fool you. Mrs. Pallavicini is spry! Well, spryer than a  glass-and-concrete house with exposed beams. Once again, Modernist House curses its own timely fashionableness. It'll never have a family.) 
 
Can your team stop Tudor-inspired before it shoves the Rev in the kitchen window and goes looking for a baby carriage? Maybe. But you probably want to avoid that big brownstone over there. It's heard that there's a superteam looking for a new home . . .