Our picksCOVID Data Hold a Surprise | Preppers Are Packing Heat | Snooping on Protesters, and more

Consequences of Federal Failure: Lessons from New York City in the Pandemic (Alexis Blane, Just Security)
A city is the form of government best positioned to understand the needs of its constituents. But the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the ways in which local government, even when properly empowered, may not be powerful enough to combat big threats without federal support.

How George W. Bush Crafted a Social Distancing Plan - and Why It Was Ignored by the U.S. and Britain(Paul Nuki, The Telegraph)
Former president ordered scientists to devise a social distancing strategy to slow a pandemic, but it was not used for Covid-19

Stats Hold a Surprise: Lockdowns May Have Had Little Effect on COVID-19 Spread (Jay W. Richards, William M. Brigs, and Douglas Axe, National Review)
Data suggest mandatory lockdowns exacted a great cost, with a questionable effect on transmission.

Covid, Lockdown and the Economics of Valuing Lives (Simon Wood, Spectator)
The government is facing some difficult calculations.

Will the Economic and Psychological Costs of COVID-19 Increase Suicides? (Economist)
It is too early to say, but the signs are ominous.

Homeland Security Considered Snooping on Portland Protesters’ Cellphones(Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times)
The House Intelligence Committee says one agency within the Department of Homeland Security asked another to extract data from cellphones seized from protesters.

U.S Preps for “Irregular Warfare” with China, Russia(Dave Makichuk, Asia Times)
Policy targets ‘campaigns of disinformation, deception, sabotage, as well as proxy, guerrilla and covert operations’

Oldest Living CIA Agent Says Russia Probably Targeted Trump Decades Ago(Sott Anderson, Daily Beast)
Peter Sichel was one of the CIA’s first agents at the beginning of the Cold War. Studying new intel, he sees Russia’s trademark handiwork throughout Trumpworld.

FARC Claim Responsibility for Killing One of Colombia’s Most Legendary Politicians(Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports)
Demobilized FARC leaders took responsibility for the 1995 assassination of the conservative former presidential candidate Alvaro Gomez and five other political killings on Saturday.
In a press release, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) said that the former guerrillas admitted being responsible for assassinating Gomez, a former peace negotiator, two former dissidents, a former army general and a far-right politician.
None of the high-profile killings committed between 1987 and 2002 were ever solved. In cases like that of the late Conservative Party leader, the prosecution never considered the FARC a suspect.

Preppers Are Packing Heat Because Antifa Is Coming for Your Canned Tomatoes(Judith Matloff, Dailyu Beast)
Preppers include everyone from urbanites hoarding flashlight batteries to militant survivalists, but lately there’s been increasing online chatter about stockpiling guns and ammo.

Trump Camp Runs Ads Defending Conspiracy Theorists (Will Sommer, Daily Beast)
Donald Trump’s campaign has put out a new ad warning that former Vice President Joe Biden wants to “cancel” conspiracy theorists, an unusual defense of a section of the populace that would be shunned by almost any other White House.
The ad, which ran on Sept. 29 and 30 online, according to a Google ad database, warns that conspiracy theorists are on the list of Biden’s first targets to “cancel.”
“Joe Biden’s cancel culture is getting out of hand,” the ad warns, through messages flickering on an antique TV. “Biden and the radical left want to cancel the politically incorrect, the conspiracists, the free thinkers, and after that, the political opposition.”