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Accountability government transparency national politics & policies

Droning On

Mayorkas, Homeland Security, Lex Luthor

“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said yesterday on ABC’s This Week, acknowledging the obvious.

“We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast,” the Secretary assured the public, “and we are vigilant in investigating this matter.” 

That means: He doesn’t know or he’s lying. But he pinky swears to apply the same vigilance to the Mystery Drone question that he demonstrated in managing the border these last four years.

Plus, Mayorkas promised, without even cracking a smile, to let us know right away if anything changes and it turns out these things humming over our heads are part of, say, an alien invasion. Or anything. Sorta don’t call us, we’ll call you.

But he reiterated his desire “to assure the American public that we are on it.”

This follows a news briefing last week by “federal agencies leading the response” that, as CNN described, “left reporters and the public with more questions than answers, as they downplayed but simultaneously legitimized concerns about the reported drones.”

“Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country,” President-​Elect Donald Trump stated on Truth Social. “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge? I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!”

Meanwhile, on Friday, an international airport in New Windsor, New York, closed its runways for an hour due to a drone spotted in the area; on Saturday night, Boston Police arrested two men for flying a drone “dangerously close to Logan International Airport,” with a third suspect escaping in a boat and still at large; and, earlier in the week, a Chinese national was arrested leaving the country after having flown a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. 

Is there no one in Washington capable of exerting sane leadership?

Or telling the truth?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Illustration created with Flux and Firefly

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Categories
Thought

James Baldwin

Words like “freedom,” “justice,” “democracy” are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.

James Baldwin, “The Crusade of Indignation,” The Nation (July 7, 1956), published in book form in The Price of the Ticket (1985).
Categories
Today

The Convention Parliament

On December 16, 1689, England’s Convention Parliament began, not only transferring power from one king to another, but establishing procedures and rights.

Categories
Update

The Fiscal Crisis Cometh

“We’ve got major fiscal problems and a completely unsustainable fiscal trajectory. I haven’t heard anyone, Democrat or Republican, witness or member, that [sic] doesn’t accept that fact,” Reason magazine quotes Rep. Jodey Arrington (R‑Texas), chairman of the House Budget Committee. “We won’t know when the dominoes fall on us in a sovereign debt crisis, it’s going to be difficult to put the pieces back together and maintain our global leadership.”

Eric Boehm, the Reason author, relays the gist of last week’s committee hearing. He also acknowledges the limits of the committee’s wherewithal: “While there is little disagreement about the seriousness of America’s fiscal problems, the committee hearing also inadvertently highlighted the immense difficulty of solving them.”

Which is why many people have yearned for something like a constitutional balanced budget amendment:

Of course, lawmakers don’t need a constitutional constraint to prevent them from borrowing too much. They could simply pass a budget that doesn’t depend on trillions of dollars in annual borrowing.

Yes, yes, it’s okay to laugh. But that is the thing that must happen. 

Which brings us to DOGE, the “Department of Government Efficiency,” Trump’s brain trust on reducing government spending, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Which Ron Paul has advised.

And now, so has David Stockman.

In a long piece on Substack, the former Reagan era budget bulldog offers “Memo To Musk & Ramaswamy: How To Cut $2 Trillion of Fat, Muscle And Bone — The Complete Plan.” It’s comprehensive and daring, but we’ll quote only the setup, where Stockman paints the picture of the challenge America faces:

Categories
Thought

Will Durant

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

Will Durant, “What Is Civilization?” Ladies’ Home Journal (January 1946).

Categories
Today

Bill of Rights Became Law

On December 15, 1791, the United States’ Bill of Rights became constitutional law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.

On December 15 in 1933, the Twenty-​first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially became effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that had, by enabling the Volstead Act, prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for any other than medical and industrial uses.

December 15 birthdays include that of Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad, 1861, first Head of State of independent Finland, serving in this capacity first as leader of the Senate and then as Protector, or Regent. In 1930 he became Prime Minister, and in 1931 was elected President, leaving office in 1937.

During the Civil War of 1918, his anti-​socialist refugee government, Valkoiset, or “Whites,” opposed the “Reds,” a Social Democrat Party faction, for control of the government as it transitioned from Russian rule as a Grand Duchy, to independent status.

He died in 1944.