The “You Hear That, Mr. Anderson? That Is the Sound of Inevitability. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson” Edition

Rational Security

This week, Scott took a well-deserved vacation, so Alan and Quinta were joined by Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien to discuss:

• “But I thought 42 was the answer to life, the universe, and everything.” This week the Biden administration will cease Title 42, the policy linked to the Covid public health emergency under which asylum seekers could be turned back at the border. In its place, the administration is implementing a new rule that substantially limits asylum, limitations that, before the Trump administration implemented Title 42, would have been unthinkable. What should we make of the Biden administration’s embrace of immigration restrictions?
• “Every time a tragedy, increasingly also a farce.” Over the weekend, a gunman opened fire at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, killing at least 8 people and injuring at least 7 before being killed by police. Tragically, this wasn’t even the deadliest mass shooting on record this year. How did mass shootings become America’s pastime, and what can be done to stop them?
• “BuzzFeed? More Like Buzz Kill.” Late last month, BuzzFeed News announced that it was shutting down. The news site always courted controversy, never more so than when, in 2017, it published the unverified and infamous “Steele Dossier” alleging that Russia had compromising information on newly elected president Donald Trump. But the site had notable successes as well, earning a George Polk Award and a Pulitzer Prize. What does BuzzFeed News’s end signal about the future of journalism?

For object lessons, Quinta highlighted Caitlin Dickerson’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of family separation in The Atlantic, Tyler recommended the new global publication The Dial, and Alan raved about his new favorite dystopian sci-fi show, Silo.

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