Just in case you were feeling a little too cheerful, what with the arrival of Spring and the failure of the Chinese space station to fall on your head and all, here’s a little something to keep you a bit more grounded. A new Congressional Research Service report indicates that despite decades of warnings being issued to the energy sector, our power grid is still far too vulnerable to attacks, posing the threat of massive power outages which could bring the country to its knees for weeks, months or even years. And, as Adam Kredo explains at the Free Beacon, we’re not even talking about high-tech terror attacks or massive hacking schemes. We’ve already been hit with scattered attacks which require little more than a single person with a rifle.

The U.S. electric grid has become increasingly vulnerable to what the federal government is describing as an unprecedented wave of attacks that threatens to cripple the nation, according to a new investigative report that warns the energy industry is lagging in efforts to boost physical security of these critical sites.

Amid a wave of increasing attacks across the country on key power stations, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, has been struggling to force the power industry to enact a series of security improvements meant to stop would-be attackers and terrorists from crippling the nation’s infrastructure.

Since 2014, “security risks to the power grid have become an even greater concern in the electric utility industry,” according to a new Congressional Research Service report that warns the power industry “has not necessarily reached the level of physical security needed based on the sector’s own assessments of risk.”

The two scenarios which could potentially send the whole country back into the dark ages for a while are a massive electromagnetic pulse (EMP) burst or a particularly well planned hacking effort. But as the report notes, there have been local attacks using rifles and small, improvised explosive charges at transformer substations which have cut out the power over specific areas for a significant number of hours. A more widespread, coordinated attack of even such a low-tech nature which takes out some of the huge, regional transformers could spell trouble for weeks or months. And most of these stations have limited security in place if they have any at all.

This is frustrating to many analysts because we’re not waiting for some new, Star Wars level technology to be developed. The technical ability to “smarten” up the grid and isolate outages already exists, but it’s expensive to put in place. The utilities don’t want to spend the money and the government either doesn’t have it or can’t dig that deeply into the private industry’s infrastructure. (Or both.) At the individual stations, it would take some resources to put in more effective shielding and defensive arrangements to thwart low-tech attacks, but it could clearly be done with enough effort. This could conceivably be one project which might be included in any proposed federal infrastructure package.

I realize it’s a bit of a dry topic and not as “exciting” as many other threats we face, but it needs to be addressed. We’ve identified a vulnerability which our enemies doubtless already know about and we have the capacity to largely mitigate the danger. Failing to do so shifts the blame at least partly onto us, not just the prospective terrorists.

Rapid action to make schools more secure and reduce the risk of another mass shooting was demanded after the attack at Parkland. The changes came fast, something quite unusual when you consider the generally glacial pace of the federal government (and usually the state as well). Florida passed the Gun and School Safety Bill on March 7th, barely three weeks after the shooting, with similar legislation being introduced and attracting bipartisan sponsors in Washington.

All of this has added up to many changes. In addition to bans on bump stocks, more funds are available for armed school resource officers. Perimeter security measures are being established around schools. New systems allowing the anonymous reporting of students (or anyone else in the system) displaying aberrant or dangerous behavior, making threats. etc. have been launched. School-specific ID cards have been generated to help detect unauthorized persons looking to enter the campus and allow them to be more quickly identified. While not enacted yet, some schools are looking at metal detectors.

That must have the Parkland kids from that big march in D.C. pretty happy, right? Rarely do you see your demands met with such a rapid response. But as it turns out, most of them aren’t all that thrilled. In fact, some are complaining that they feel like they’re returning to a prison rather than a school. (CNN)

Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School return to class Monday, their first day back since organizing one of the largest youth-led protests in US history. But these teenagers won’t be returning to a normal high school experience. Instead, they’ll be met with strict security measures which are intended to protect them from another mass shooting but have some students feeling as if they’ll be learning in a prison.

“Going to school is really so hard, and now it’s going to be so much worse,” said Isabelle Robinson, a senior. “A lot of the people I’ve talked to are dreading going back.” …

“It feels like being punished,” Robinson told CNN. “It feels like jail, being checked every time we go to school.”

When classes first resumed two weeks after the shooting, Principal Thompson told students not to bring backpacks at all while they focused on their emotional health and not the curriculum.

This appears to be a case of idealism (or, if you’re more cynical, some astroturf which passes for it) crashing into reality. Being either outraged or frightened at the number of school shootings, or at least the media portrayal of how many there are, is a perfectly normal reaction for a teenager. Asking to be more secure in both their homes and their schools is also completely understandable. But increased security comes at a price, and that may include inconvenience or disruption to your normal schedule Most of us would love to be able to sail through the airport quickly and still make our flights like we did back in the 90s, but in the post 9/11 world that was no longer the reality.

I’m not trying to shame these students for being in a snit over having to use clear backpacks, wear ID tags or any of the other measures being put in place. They’re teenagers and we shouldn’t expect them to roll with the punches as an adult would. These things develop over time and as they mature they’ll probably understand the response to their demands with a bit broader perspective.

Over the weekend I wrote about the “caravan” (read: army) of illegal aliens currently coming up through Mexico with plans to enter the United States. The Mexican government is thus far doing nothing to stop them, and some towns and cities along the route are even hurrying them along. You don’t need to look far to find American media outlets cheering them on as if they are striking some sort of blow for equality or whatever.

The President obviously caught wind of the story himself. He sent out a few tweets over the weekend declaring that Mexico has an obligation to help protect the border and if they can’t handle the job there may be repercussions. (WaPo)

Trump thrust the future of millions of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children into peril by promising “NO MORE DACA DEAL,” and he directed congressional Republicans to pass tough anti-immigration legislation.

An hour after he wished Americans a “HAPPY EASTER,” Trump fired off three tweets in which he vented, sometimes in all caps, about immigration laws he derided as “ridiculous” and “dumb” and about border enforcement he deemed dangerously lax.

In his first of the immigration-related tweets, Trump wrote, “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

The usual media backflips are on display this morning as Trump’s opponents seek to claim that there’s no relationship between DACA, NAFTA and illegal aliens queuing up to sneak over the border into America. In reality, of course, all of these subjects are interwoven.

First of all, the fact that the so-called “dreamers” were brought here as children doesn’t mean that they aren’t in the country illegally if DACA fully expires and Congress takes no action to address the situation legislatively. And that remedy is going to require some cooperation and compromise on the part of the Democrats if they want to influence the process while they’re in the minority.

NAFTA is involved because Mexico has already agreed repeatedly (at least on paper) that they too are responsible for the security of the border. Their unwillingness to pitch in on building the wall has been a rather obvious jab at the President (who they need to be making a deal with) and it’s clearly exhausting his patience. If they want a better trade deal and the cooperation of their neighbors to the north, they could heal a lot of wounds by stepping up their enforcement efforts, beginning with shutting down this “caravan.”

The Democrats back home are involved on that front as well. If they want any sort of immigration reform passed, a Dreamers deal or anything else, they too should have been able to get much of what they wanted by coming to the table. At this point, it’s not much of a mystery as to why Trump may be reaching the end of his rope and calling on Republicans to go nuclear on the filibuster and pass something.

None of this is meant to imply that a deal is imminent. The players involved are all too hunkered down in their corners at the moment. But that doesn’t mean that the White House has no more cards left to play. If our immigration forces are arrayed at the border when this caravan arrives, with instructions to keep things locked down, the plan may backfire. The travelers are counting on overwhelming our immigration enforcement agencies, asking for asylum and planning on being turned loose in the United States for years until their cases can be heard. If we move some folks around and make room in detention facilities near the border to hold them all while the background work is done that plan may not wind up looking like such a winner.