Raid Delay (Open Thread)

by 9:26 am. It has 173 Comments.

As you’ve no doubt heard, Trump postponed the planned raids on undocumented immigrants, claiming that Democrats requested a delay. Here are the relevant tweets:

At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start! (1:56 PM ET 6/22)

I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins! (7:13 AM ET 6/23)

It’s true that Speaker Pelosi and other Dems spoke out against the raids. CNN says Pelosi called Trump Friday night to ask him to call off the raids. But why did Trump delay them?

We can make two evergreen assumptions: 1) the reason Trump cited is a lie, and 2) it wasn’t Ivanka’s moderating influence.

So what was it? Polling data? Concern that raids would tank a recently negotiated spending bill? Lack of resources and readiness on the part of ICE? A bid to heighten the sick drama? A random reversal barfed up by a disintegrating brain?

It’s a mystery to me. Open thread.





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Foreign Policy Open Thread: Jared Kushner Will Bring Peace to the Middle East…

by 9:15 pm. It has 68 Comments.

… shortly after I win the Miss America contest. For which, let it be specified, I do not meet the basic requirements. And also, I wouldn’t enter if I *did*. So, context!

The Oval Office squatter and his Repub enablers don’t care about what happens in the Middle East, and even if they did, they haven’t the ability to do anything about it. But if they can skim some cash from the petrostate oligarchs for putting on a heavily PowerPointed dog & pony show — about the money, that, they care.

Long information thread here:





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Good Birthday

by 8:51 pm. It has 57 Comments.

The birthday dinner:

Crabcakes, broccoli from the garden, and tomatoes with mozz. and basil. Gonna have some raspberries later.

It was a perfect day again- 80 and sunny with a breeze and no humidity. Washed the car, went and got a pedicure, painted the pipes for the shelves, did a little bit of weeding and powerwashed part of the front porch before quitting and saying it can wait until tomorrow and I went and cooked dinner.

I just love this time of year.

*** Update ***

Currently wedged underneath a vicious attack dog:

Send help.





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Evening Open Thread – Cats and Dinosaurs

by 7:18 pm. It has 41 Comments.

The New York Times asks, Does Fluffy Really Want To Be An Adventure Cat?

It tells the story of Copurrnicus, who lived through the initial paralysis of suffering a harness (Ric fell over on his side, too, the first time) to become an adventure cat, even going camping. Also hints about how to accustom a cat to a harness and leash. It takes a run at figuring out how to tell if a cat is stressed, but gives up easily.

All told, this means that cat owners should be attuned to signs of stress. But cats, can be difficult to read.

And that comma! Heavens to copy editors!

Another good read is New Clues Point to When Dinosaurs Began Reproducing Like Modern Birds. The key is when they started brooding their eggs, rather than just leaving them in the sand.

 





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Election 2020 Open Thread: There’s Worse Fates Than Being ‘the Consensus Candidate’

by 2:00 pm. It has 233 Comments.

Even if it is Politico announcing it — “Warren emerges as potential compromise nominee”:

… With 99 town halls and 30,000 selfies under her belt, Warren has offered a level of access that has disarmed some critics. She’s also made a point of traveling to some of the reddest of red-state locales — Mississippi, Utah and West Virginia, among them…

Polling suggests that at least one of Warren’s lightning-rod proposals — taxing the net worth of the wealthiest Americans — has support that extends beyond progressive circles. According to a recent Morning Consult survey, 61 percent of all voters favored her 2 percent wealth tax on households worth at least $50 million. Among Democrats, 74 percent favored the plan…

Ezra Klein, at Vox, had an excellent interview before the current ‘surge’ on “Elizabeth Warren’s plan to pass her plans” — I’d read this if nothing else:

… Ezra Klein: How different would it be for Democrats — or in this case for you — to run against Donald Trump in 2020 after he has passed all this agenda, the Republican agenda, versus in 2016, when he was claimed to be a populist running to reform the Republican Party. In polls, people thought Donald Trump was quite moderate in 2016. It seems running actually having a record now is going to snap what he is into place in a way that makes his reelection campaign very different.

Elizabeth Warren: He’s now got a record. Over and over, you can say he gave away a trillion-and-a-half dollars that just all went to the rich guys. The tariffs are killing you. It’s the ability now to come back and just say here are the facts. Here’s what happens and just hold him to it.

Now I don’t want to kid myself about it. He is a master at distraction and will want to talk about something else. I think part of this will be talking about what he’s done, but I think the much more central part will be, as Democrats, are we just going to be not-Trump? In which case, we ignore the fact something was broken in this country to elect a guy like Trump. Or are we going to be the party that says we get what’s wrong, we have a plan to fix it, and we’re going to build a grassroots movement to make that happen?…

Cole linked to Dahlia Lithwick’s Slate article when it first appeared, but it’s worth highlighting:

… [T]he women who come to these early Warren rallies like being addressed by an adult as adults. At a time when America has devalued teachers, empathy, expertise, and planning for the future, Elizabeth Warren serves as one reminder of what we have lost. It doesn’t mean the voters will necessarily throng to her side. It just means that the women I spoke to, and more and more of the women I know, don’t mind being educated about how everything went so terribly wrong in their political lifetimes. Elizabeth Warren can explain it, and has a plan for it, and believes she can fix it. It’s not glittery, and it may not make your heart beat faster in a stadium. But in a world of noise and bluster, her clarity has its own sort of charm.

Read more





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