Even as drones with wingspans up to eight feet were sighted by law enforcement officials, Washington brushed them off

Public curiosity over the exponential rise in unexplained drone sightings has been overtaken by anger at the federal government’s disinterest in explaining the phenomenon and its seeming discrediting of hundreds of eyewitness accounts.

New Jersey held the highest number of credible sightings, including several near two military bases and President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster home.

Yet even as drones with wingspans up to eight feet wide were sighted by law enforcement officials, Washington brushed them off, saying they had no evidence of “nefarious” activity.

Sheriff Michael Mastronardy of Ocean County, New Jersey (which includes the Lakewood area), received reports from officers under his command about drones and sent some of his department’s own unmanned aircraft to track them. But as they approached, the drones went dark and could no longer be followed.

In one highly publicized incident, a police officer on Ocean County’s Long Beach Island spotted some 50 drones flying in from over the water.

Sheriff Mastronardy came to the scene and reported the sighting to the FBI, who joined him on Long Beach Island and dispatched a Coast Guard boat. Crew members of that boat later told the sheriff that it had been followed by a dozen or so large drones.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told media the aircraft the Coast Guard had observed were actually planes headed for Kennedy Airport.

“You can’t tell us we’re seeing things when we give you documentation,” Sheriff Mastronardy said. “ ’Everything’s okay, but we don’t know what it is.’ What the heck is that supposed to mean?”

Federal officials dismissed concern by citing the more than one million licensed drones in the county, and pointing out that flying drones is legal in most areas. Officials claimed the recent frenzy was merely recognition of an ongoing reality.

Daniel Gerstein, a former undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Obama administration and currently a researcher at the Rand think tank, agreed that drone sightings were being reported out of context.

“It’s probably a mix of things going on — small, unmanned aircraft, small manned aircraft being mistaken for drones, and a lot of misinformation being amplified on social media,” he said.

Theories on what was behind them ranged from reconnaissance by a foreign adversary to alien visitors. Government inaction reminded many of the Chinese observation ballon that hovered over the United States for weeks last year.

Sherriff Mastronardy’s best guess was that the drones were the result of a project by the government itself, compounding frustration over the federal response.

“All they have to do is say, ‘Yes, we’re doing a study,’ and that would kill speculation,” he said. “When you’re not straight with people, they make up their own information.”

A silver lining many see in the drone mystery is a wake-up call that the proliferation of unmanned aircraft is outpacing existing laws, and that state and local agencies need more authority to deal with them.

Yet as government officials kept up lines like DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s telling CNN, “We haven’t seen anything unusual,” more people felt federal officials remained irritatingly deaf to the institutional distrust they continued to feed.

“Government hasn’t been forthcoming or responsive,” said Dr. Gerstein. “That just creates a vacuum that gets filled with a lot of nonsense.”

Musk Flexes His Muscles

Political observers are used to the drama of funding showdowns in which Congress bickers down to zero hour, usually emerging with a late-night compromise package containing whopping sums for pet projects. Every few years a shutdown actually occurs, leaving a stench on the majority party.

House Speaker Mike Johnson spent weeks ironing out a bipartisan compromise only for it to be sunk by tech mogul turned co-head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk.

“Stop the steal of your tax dollars!” he wrote. Another post read, “Unless @DOGE ends the careers of deceitful, pork-barrel politicians, the waste and corruption will never stop.”

The bill faced uncertain prospects, with many Republicans hesitant to back another unwieldy spending package. Mr. Musk’s calls were seconded by President-elect Donald Trump, and the bill was torpedoed.

Within 24 hours, House Republicans had a pared-down bill ready to go, complete with Mr. Trump’s approval. The bill must still be passed by the Senate, but many were left thinking Mr. Musk’s takedown was just untraditional political orchestration.

Not Your Grandfather’s Strike

The Teamsters Union initiated what it claimed was the largest strike against Amazon, ever with 10,000 drivers joining picket lines.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” said Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien in a statement.

A company spokeswoman said the strike would not affect fulfillment services, and that very few drivers are represented by the Teamsters.

Amazon employees have complained of poor wages and conditions for years. Recently, Amazon announced it would invest $2 billion into driver salaries, which was expected to translate into a 7% pay raise. Yet a contract was never negotiated.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote a social post supporting the strike and castigating Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, for his labor practices and for recently dining with President-elect Donald Trump.

Despite the Vermont socialist’s packaging, the strike is not like the labor disputes of yore that neatly divided the political left and right.

Mr. O’Brien, the Teamsters’ leader, became an ally of President-elect Donald Trump and addressed this year’s Republican Convention.

Further blurring the lines, and giving Mr. Trump a foot in opposing courts, Amazon owner Mr. Bezos, once seen as emblematic of Silicon Valley’s progressive power base, infuriated many on the left by blocking the Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing a presidential candidate.

100,000

The discovery of several mass graves around Damascus left little doubt that Bashar al-Assad’s tyrannical regime tortured and murdered over 100,000 people.

“We really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis,” Stephan Rapp, an international prosecutor, told Reuters. “We are talking about a system of state terror that became a machinery of death.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1042)