143 Comments

All this sudden transparency about UFOs feels utterly at odds with the secretive and censorious trends in every other area of government and culture. My gut tells me it's a smokescreen, but from what I have no idea.

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Perhaps setting us up for the next emergency that requires absolute compliance with the directives of the world Government that Will Protect us little folk?

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That is a scary possibility. I'm getting tired of all their invented crises.

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It’s a smokescreen disguised as transparency, making the real story more opaque.

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Easy for you to say

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Two things can be true at the same time: (1) the US is in possession of alien technology, and (2) this disclosure is part of some sort of PsyOp.

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This feels pretty close to the mark. Many serious scientists have speculated about how first contact with aliens might occur, and this scenario is one of the more plausible ones. We’re maybe a century away from being able to send AI drones to nearby stars ourselves.

I can imagine that both an intelligent species and our government might take a similar approach to revealing something as big and unpredictable as a first contact- a slow drip of information that warms people up to the idea, tests the response, and gradually reveals more over the course of time as people become more accepting of something so improbable and significant happening in their lifetime.

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This theory assumes our government is benevolent and wants nothing but to help people and make us more "accepting".

Unfortunately when we look at real whistleblowers like Assange we see this not to be true. There is no benevolence, just power struggles. Making US technology appear superior to the point of being alien would be one theory. Making people more afraid and ready to conform to any new laws would be another. These seem more likely imo but it's up to you to decide.

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It is more likely a conflict with "the program" as described in the article. So want more openness so they have a chance to succeed in using this technology will others see secrecy as most important. Also, interorganizational rivalries may play a part.

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Or maybe a way to discredit journalists who challenge the powerful - give them a "scoop" too good to pass up.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.

Credibility is worth more than being first with a "scoop".

When there are only a few reporters willing to tell the outrageous crimes about to be exposed, they will attempt to silence and discredit those voices.

Playing video and headlines of those reporters talking credulously about UFO's, will make those reporters the story - and not in a good way.

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Jun 8, 2023·edited Jun 9, 2023

We are coming out of three year pandemic that wreaked economies, transfered billions more into the hands of the few, and killed and injured great numbers of people.

A thorough accounting of what happened and the forces behind it eludes us. Bill Gates, WHO, and other prime suspects are gearing up for other global "health emergencies," with your medical data and freedom of movement and democratic institutions on top of their priorities list.

But look over there, the military brass is allegedly hiding "evidence" of UFOs, suggestive of alien life. Even if true, it's a calculated distraction.

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Agree. I don't buy it. Now we get to wonder what's the point. Covid came from space? As far as I am concerned the strange spececraft out there are our R&D

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It's total BS. I'm surprised you're so gullible about this. The only question is what the purpose of this lie is--is it a pure grift, an intelligence psy-op to cover up our own experimental aircrafts, or pure distraction from our economic misery? One thing is clear--a civilization capable of traveling from another galaxy is not going to be flying glorified drones over our air force bases. Get real.

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I’ve always thought this was a cover for our own experimental aircraft, and that’s still the most likely explanation. But intelligent life almost certainly exists out there, and their physical and technological evolution will be out of sync with the path and timeline humanity has followed.

This story is implausible, but entirely possible. We should have a healthy skepticism any time our alphabet agencies are involved, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it out of hand. Contact with aliens will happen at some point in human history, and statistically it’s equally likely to happen next Tuesday as it is to happen 10,000 years ago, or 10,000 years in the future.

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Yes - and one wonders why they always seem to end up in the US and far away from civilian populations. World’s a big place - or was anyway- and there are plenty of other places for UFOs to touch down.

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You'd think the interplanetary visitors would want to go to Disney World.

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It is a USA thing. Why needs an essay or even a large book.

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I would *love* a good sociological examination of the UFO phenomenon. I imagine there must be one out there somewhere.

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They’re the current iteration of angels and demons. As in hallucinations, maybe?

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As in, want to believe.

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Who said they came from another Galaxy? They could have flown out of Ganymede for all we know. The evidence for UAPs is getting very strong, limited by Military Cement Heads as it is. I don't know about this crashed UFOs stuff, sounds speculative since this guy, though he may have impeccable credentials, sworn under penalty of perjury, but all hearsay. No direct evidence. Realize that even the Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist Stephen Weinberg states his belief that the UAPs are real. And has some inside knowledge himself.

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'Former' AF intelligence officers assuring us there are alien crashed vehicles aren't evidence of anything--except an Air Force PR operation designed to cover up or distract us from something like the recent Chinese air balloons incursions--probably the Chinese or Russians are flying spy drones overhead and there's a covert shooting war going on up above us that the US government would much rather the public didn't know about. They 100% would have hidden the Chinese balloon incursions from the public if they could have.

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That theory is even more far-fetched then captured alien bodies and alien spacecraft. Spy drones/Chinese air balloons are trivialities and of no significance whatsoever. They have satellites that can photograph every square foot of the USA, they don't need silly balloons. The real problem the US has is it has been couped and is no longer run by Americans. The real rulers of the US are out of Davos & Geneva.

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Hahaha, right? The US has propagated a UFO psyop to cover their balloon and drone shootout with China? Lol

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I agree, and the ancient aliens thing is disturbingly Jungian.

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"They could have flown out of Ganymede for all we know"; no, we know certainly not from Ganymede.

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How is that?

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founding

Drone-like reconnaissance is exactly what they would do first. Why would the ICIG take it seriously if it's "total BS."

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I have heard people who “watch “ scientific bases claim they have seen ( at a far distance ) aircraft far beyond what our military claims We have . It would only make sense We have moved beyond the traditional jet . I live by such a base and there are certainly a lot of claims .

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Bingo

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It’s a fascinating story because the government on one hand is telling us we should pay attention to UFOs, while the other they’re telling us there’s nothing here. I suspect Grusch is telling the truth as he knows it. Question is, has he been lied to? Is he being used? Our three-letter agencies are great at creating disinformation, and they can do that by saying something is not true, while then having sources leak information that it is true. This story deserves watching simply because our government is lying about something. Shocking, I know.

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Yes, I'm suspicious this is some kind of setup, since he doesn't really have any hard evidence himself. I find the air force pilots testimony, particularly Ryan Graves, more compelling because they had direct experience.

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founding

Yes

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To process this info we need some priors on (at least) the following:

1) Aliens from another planet, presumably from outside our solar system, have developed tech far beyond human (we do not have anywhere near the capability of sending anything functional to another star), and have traveled the immense distance (from memory, it takes something like 10,000 years to get here from the nearest star under a constant 1g boost, which our tech could not possibly produce, and with perfect matter-to-pure-energy fuel needs a fuel mass of about 10,000 times the cargo mass).

2) Once they get here, mostly all they do is hide, but they have sufficient tech (which they brought as part of the precious cargo) to fly low in our atmosphere, and sometimes do things like buzz around Mosul, Iraq.

3) Depsite this enormous tech advantage, and not wanting to announce their presence, a dozen or so of their low-altitude aircraft were still shot down by our (comparatively primitive) tech.

4) The people making these claims are not lying (for their own purposes, such as getting themselves talked about), or deluded.

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I think you make good points, except the nitpick that if a constant 1G boost was possible, one would reach the nearest start in less than a decade. The nearest star is about 4 light years away. A constant 1G boost would get you close to light speed in about 1 year and you would travel about .5 LY. So 1 year to accelerate to near light speed and travel .5 LY. Three years coasting near light speed and traveling ~3 LY. One year decelerating back down to zero during which you travel .5 LY. About 5 years to cover 4 LY at 1G.

However, if you're using any tech known to humans you can't boost at a constant 1G for anywhere near that period. You quickly reach the point where 99.99999% of your rocket would need to be fuel and there's no structure left to hold it.

Don't forget:

5) According to the article above some of them land and just wander off leaving their spacecraft abandoned. Eaten by wolves?

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oops, you're right about the time: I mixed up going to the center of the galaxy. I shouldn't do these things from memory! The basic point that interstellar travel is an enormous undertaking remains valid, and one would think there would be a goal other than getting eaten by the native fauna after arrival.

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Which incidentally would prove red shirts are not limited to humans...

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1) A bit presumptive. They could be alien drones, could even come from within the solar system for all we know. They could be 5D objects, there may be another spatial dimension, it does not violate known physics.

2) I wouldn't say they hide. But they don't seem to be to eager for publicity.

3) I don't believe any were shot down. That sounds like BS to me

4) Some of that is happening without a doubt. But that doesn't explain a whole lot of the evidence.

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I've set my subscription to not renew. Priors here are way too different from mine.

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Same here. Although it is a while before it expires I will still get posts til then and I can reset it to subscribe if I change my mind.

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4) They are self-replicating probes aka von Neumann probes. Self-replicating spacecraft would in some ways either mimic or echo the features of living organisms or viruses and that's why they crash. No self controlled robot is going to be perfect.

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And they buzz around cities like Mosul, but somehow only ever crash in desolate areas where no one ever sees them.

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What’s this story distracting us from seeing?

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Jun 8, 2023·edited Jun 8, 2023

Could it be that they're trying to discredit government whistleblowers in general, even ones with impeccable credentials? Setting this guy up, either with or without his knowledge, to look like a fool? When this story is shown to be complete bunk, the next whistleblower coming out with something real will be dismissed by the public: "remember the UFO guy who seemed really credible but turned out to be full of shit?"

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founding

Very Possible

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founding

Maybe possible that a whole world concern (aliens or the idea of aliens or the idea of a threat from aliens) is needed to implement a whole world government. One God, One Government.

or it could be true

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I'm still leaning towards the one government and the reinvention of the Star Wars technology. If you have one world government it's still important to give the military industrial complex something to do beside war and policing.

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Ukraine is losing the war.

The end of the dollar as global reserve currency.

Economy crashing.

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Please don't get taken down this road, Michael. Please.

I've spent so much time talking up your credibility and rationality.

This will ruin a lot of the hard work I've put in publicizing you.

Please don't go down the alien rabbit hole. For God's sake.

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Jun 8, 2023·edited Jun 10, 2023

And yet the Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist, Eric Weinstein, has come round to the view that these objects are real and even claims he has had classified information on the subject he can't release. There are more serious scientists who are strong believers in this. Like:

Kevin Knuth - UAP Flight Performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZgUfNKBfZ0

"We’re joined by Dr. Kevin Knuth, Associate Professor of Physics at University at Albany, to discuss his quest for evidence-based answers for the UAP phenomenon. Some of the speaking points we’ll be covering include:

In September 2019 he published, “Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles” co-authored by Robert M. Powell and Peter Reali. In that paper, he described UAPs as reportedly being “structured craft that exhibit ‘impossible flight characteristics’. We’re going to drill down on that statement, and explore the “5 observables of UAPs“, which are positive lift, Sudden Acceleration, Hypersonic Velocity without Signatures, Trans-Medium Travel, and Low Observability.

In the Entropy paper, his team did analysis on the 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac encounters, and describe these craft as having “ Estimated accelerations range from almost 100 g to 1000s of gs with no observed air disturbance, no sonic booms, and no evidence of excessive heat,” and, ”observed flight characteristics of these craft are consistent with the flight characteristics required for interstellar travel”. We’re going to explore the implications of these statements, and the underlying assumption that if UAPs are in fact capable of intersellar travel, then they are likely to actually be vehicles of extraterrestrial origin.

Speculation on these vehicles seems to suggest they are either secret black project aircraft, extraterrestrial spacecraft, time-traveling humans, or something from another dimension. We’ll be discussing which of these possibilities he feels is the most likely based on existing evidence, and whether there is reason to think that any terrestrial government could be capable of designing an aircraft that would match UAP reported performance.

Additionally, we’ll be touching on his description of UAPs as appearing to “violate the laws of physics in that they do not have flight or control surfaces, any visible means of propulsion apparently violating Newton’s Third Law, and can operate in multiple media, such as space (low Earth orbit), air, and water without apparent hindrance, sonic booms, or heat dumps.”

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I agree. I subscribe to your work because of your expertise on subjects like homelessness, the environment, and the censorship. But your distrust of the government leads you down rabbit holes like this one. There's no evidence for these claims. Zero. If they were true, there would be hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who have evidence. And not a single one of them would be tempted to go public and make millions writing a book about it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They could go to jail for it. Once the truth is out, what politician is going to defend jailing someone for telling the truth about UAPs?

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Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

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Let me state right away, I like many, have be fascinated by UFOs and the possibility of alien life - intelligent or otherwise. It has always seemed to me that with billions and billions of star systems (Sagan-like), the possibility of us being alone seemed remotely low. My fascination with the potential for alien life also made me think deeply about what this may mean from a religious point view. Did it negate the various theologies or actually reinforce them? I've been more comfortable with the concept of alien probes vs actual visitations since the laws of physics preclude traveling at or even a fraction of the speed of light. And if the physics are wrong, there's a much bigger problem.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that this has been a secret when almost no secrets are kept and that with 1 billion smart phones or more, we simply don't have one high resolution photo of an actual craft with a continuation of blurry and grainy pics that could be almost anything.

Recently, I was watching Prehistoric 2 - the Apple series on dinosaurs and it hit me that 65 million years ago, thousands of incredibly unique species roamed the planet for a 100 million years or more and some from a size perspective, so preposterous that it would be hard to envision how or why "natural selection" would/could play a role. And yet dinosaurs ruled the planet for 125 million years. Therefore, the incredible variations of life on just this planet seems to weigh in the favor of life elsewhere.

But until we have more evidence - I agree with many of my fellow commentators that this story may be distracting us from others. And I think we can guess what they are. I'll leave it up to you, my fellow readers, to speculate what those other "stories" might be.

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Even if intelligent life was common, interstellar travel is really really ridiculously difficult. At least as we understand physics today.

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That's true. It is also true that how we understand physics today makes the observed motion of these objects impossible. Unless they exist in a higher spatial dimension.

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Smartphone cameras are junk. Getting a good photo of a flying craft or at night requires much better gear.

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Did you read the article? Government whistleblower notes 12 craft in possession. I think a junk iPhone would work. Just my opinion.

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Yes I read the article. Grusch doesn't claim to have seen the craft in person. I also doubt they would allow researchers to take photos of the craft on their personal phones.

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I know, whistle blowers confided him. If you were Grusch, what additional info would you request before going public. As I noted in original comment that I think alien life, intelligent or not is most likely a high probability. But it’s been almost 80 years since Roswell and very little tangible evidence. So skeptical that we have visitors from another planet or planets. I lean toward sophisticated skunkworks. Again, just my opinion.

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Interesting, *if true*. OTOH, there's no actual evidence in the claims; just citations of other people who knew people who knew people who saw things...

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Amazing Shellenberger has published this mash of speculation without qualification. Unless he is a believer in it.

He wouldnt have put up such an article in other gov areas of censorship on the basis of such flimsy hearsay "evidence". So he must believe it.

I can't imagine since this Substack went live that he has had such push back on any post.

The team behind this Substack cannot have been united in publishing this and there is bound to be fall out now. Then the news becomes on CNN about PUBLIC not censorship.

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Very sad.

I'm so disappointed. I've been pushing Schellenberger hard to my science friends, and now this.

It's going to be hard to damage control on this bit of delusional fantasy.

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I don't think you two even read the article. It is about a highly qualified whistleblower report, in sworn testimony, under penalty of perjury, of Pentagon malfeasance and illegally suppressing information they have been ordered to provide. What that information is about is irrelevant in this case. This is very much in Shellenberger's wheelhouse.

As for the claims that are supposedly contained in the suppressed reports, I don't believe most of them, I would still stick to credible, sworn eye witness testimony, especially from highly qualified military pilots like Ryan Graves, also an engineer. Calling that a delusional fantasy is nothing short of ridiculous.

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Color me highly skeptical.

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Michael, I second others here and beg you not to squander your credibility reporting this. Personally I rate the odds of there being anything real here as approximately zero. There's a kind of Pascal's wager aspect to this: in the absurdly unlikely event that there is something to this, the last thing any of us will care about is who broke the story.

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No you are wrong. This is very much about the Military rejecting civilian oversight, not complying with legal directives, and hiding important scientific information from public view. If it is such nonsense than why not just release all the data they have, and it can be scientifically evaluated.

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I don't disagree with your specific point here, but there are some subjects that you cannot touch without damaging your credibility. Michael should leave this to someone else. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by risking the appearance of being too interested.

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Well it hasn't done anything to Tucker Carlson's credibility, he got like 90M views on his first online show in which he discussed that very subject. Also Saagar Enjeti on Breaking Points covers the subject regularly.

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Although some ridiculously large percentage of Americans believe in “angels”. Angels! For Christsakes.

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Seriously? I don't believe this for a minute. Another substance writer went off on flights of fancy on this one.

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Who was that other Substack writer? Do you have a link?

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Interesting stuff, and it appeals to my sense of wonder. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy! But as a practical matter, there's that other aphorism: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. So I'll keep my mind open, but at this point will tilt on the side of doubt.

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"Nonhuman origin" And we know this how?

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How is because we don't even have the physics to explain the motion of these objects. You can talk about the super secret Manhattan project to develop an atomic bomb. But at that time the physics was well established and most any physicist knew that such a weapon could be built, at least the physics was sound, the engineering, the nuts & bolts had yet to be discovered.

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Motion is relative. "We don't understand how that thing appears to be moving the way it seems to be moving" is not a proof of extraterrestrial origin. It is far from that.

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I've noticed sometimes people assign a speed to something because they make assumptions about its size and distance, like a small, close object perceived as large and distant, or vice versa.

Watching the Blue Angels do their stunts during fleet week has taught me a lot about UFOs and eye-witness testimony, because I've seen them "appear to" do all of the things that alien craft are supposed to do: hover, disappear, make acute-angle turns, etc. They don't do these things, but when viewed from the right angle they can surely appear to.

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Listen to the testimony of Navy pilots, these guys lives depend on estimating size and distance of targets and have sophisticated radars, and know how to use them. You ain't going to fool those guys. And corroborated by ship radars. For instance:

UFO Tactics - Navy Pilot Ryan Graves gives UAP accounts at Aeronautical Conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sXGHvTceLc

UFO Tactics PART2 - Pilot Ryan Graves’ briefing on all the East Coast UFO - F18 engagements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnK0F8YVhbw

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Speaking as an Old Crow, I actually LOL at your reliance on radar returns.

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What reliance on radar? They are also using FLIR and visual. These are many experienced pilots who separately experienced the same phenomena.

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Motion is relative? So the FA-18 pilot's plane was actually standing still while the object zapped past him at Mach 2? With no heat signature, no exhaust, no visible means of propulsion. This is so far beyond our tech it is like an F-35 landing in Amazonia 1000yrs ago.

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Halogram technology

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No, they don't.

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10-1 it's the latest version of the Bob Lazar scam

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Micheal, don't listen to the nay sayers. Any true scientific explorer will want to investigate this. It's a fascinating story, even if it turns out completely mundane, the psychological/social/political fall out is still mind bogglingly interesting.

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