OUR PICKSOmicron Is the Beginning of the End | Anthrax Attack Fantasies | Big Border Wall Is Now a Pile of Rusting Steel, and more
· Omicron Is the Beginning of the End
· Trump’s Big Border Wall Is Now a Pile of Rusting Steel
· Anti-Vaxxer Crowds Are Now Attacking Cheesecake Factories, REIs, and Panera Bread
· Pentagon Updates Its Rules on Extremism in the Military
· Man Who Joined Capitol Melee Gets Nearly 4 Years in Prison
· Drought, Wildfires, and Smoke and the Growing Risks of Climate Change in the Golden State
· CBP Releases November 2021 Monthly Operational Update, Reporting 10 Percent Increase in Border Crossers for the Month
· A Smarter Grid to Help Protect Public Utilities from Cyberattacks
· Understanding the Offense’s Systemwide Advantage in Cyberspace
· Far-Right Group Fantasizes They’ve Been Attacked with Anthrax
Omicron Is the Beginning of the End (Yascha Mounk, The Atlantic)
No matter the severity of the variant, the appetite for shutdowns or other large-scale social interventions simply isn’t there.
Trump’s Big Border Wall Is Now a Pile of Rusting Steel (John B. Washington, The Atlantic)
Worth at least a quarter billion dollars, the steel bollards are a relic of the Trump era.
The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School (David Zweig, The Atlantic)
The agency’s director has said, repeatedly, that schools without mask mandates have triple the risk of COVID outbreaks. That claim is based on very shaky science.
Anti-Vaxxer Crowds Are Now Attacking Cheesecake Factories, REIs, and Panera Bread (Kelly Weil, Daily Beast)
The latest anti-vaccine stupidity coming soon to a mall—or wig shop serving cancer patients—near you.
Pentagon Updates Its Rules on Extremism in the Military (Helene Cooper, New York Times)
The Pentagon on Monday issued new guidelines meant to root out extremism in the U.S. military, warning that “liking” white nationalist and extremist content on social media and similar activities could result in disciplinary action. The guidelines come nearly a year after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, which dozens of current and former service members attended, leading to a reckoning at the Pentagon over extremism in the ranks. The participation of military personnel in the Capitol riot distressed senior Pentagon officials so much that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered a 60-day “stand down,” completed in April, to address the issue. During that period, most units in the armed forces discussed why white supremacy and extremism have no place in the military. In those conversations, one young service member said that for the first four months after he joined his Army unit, a flag representing the right-wing extremist militia called the Three Percenters hung on a wall in the foyer of his barracks. A Black Marine described feeling sick when he saw the red and gold flag that represents his service being flown during the Capitol attack. A white brigadier general worried privately about whether service members could be in trouble for supporting former President Donald J. Trump.
