In the news today: The omicron variant of COVID-19 is looking to be bad news for the unvaccinated—but potentially catastrophic for overworked hospitals. Rethink travel plans, wear masks, and make sure you’ve gotten your booster if it’s time for you to get one.

New evidence on the January 6 coup attempt suggests that the reason the National Guard was so slow in coming to lawmakers’ aid during the violence was that military officials believed doing so would play into Trump White House plans to use the Insurrection Act to seize power through force. Because that is a thing our military must now take into consideration when Republicans are in office.

And as we near the year’s end, Sen. Joe Manchin continues to be pilloried as he makes excuses for why he won’t vote for key climate and infrastructure legislation no matter how many concessions he extracts from Biden and his fellow Democrats. He says he doesn’t want a child tax credit because parents will just use it for drugs. That’s right, he drives a Maserati bought with coal money, lives on a boat bought with coal money, and says we can’t give his voters food money because they might waste it. He’s a frickin’ cartoon.

Here’s some of what you may have missed: