I believe we are in the midst of a multi-decade secretive arms race, one funded by misallocated taxpayer dollars and hidden from our elected representatives and oversight bodies.

And I think that summary is really important because the main point of these hearings really hasn't been that credible people, like these former military officials, believe that

non-humans are among us, even though that is the storyline that I think most of us find most

fascinating. The main point of the hearings has been that government officials seem to know more

than they are letting on, and they are not only not telling the public what they know, but they're hiding

information from Congress.

I am so damn tired of being lied to.

I don't think I can deny it anymore.

You can't stick to your story if you think it flies.

But I'm not going to buy it anymore.

Hello, my friend, and thank you for listening to the 307th episode of Congressional Dish.

I'm your host Jennifer Briney.

And as the most dysfunctional Congress I've ever studied comes to a chaotic close, because as I record this, we are on the brink of a completely unnecessary and unexpected government shutdown.

Caused by this Congress's failure to complete

even a single government funding law this year out of the 12 required, and incoming President

Donald Trump and Elon Musk, intentionally blowing up a House bill that would have kept the

government funded until March and allowed over 1,500 pages of dingleberries to also slip

their way into law. Well, that bill was revealed this week, and within 24 hours, it was dead.

And so, as I record this, I and seemingly no other DC reporter have any idea what's going to happen.

And in this Congress, I don't dare make a prediction.

And so, today, we are going to ignore what we can't control

and just talk about something more fun for the holidays,

...