I DID have this on my personal 2023 Bingo Card & Slow Trickle Disclosure “speeds up” with subterfuge…
It’s certainly been a wild past week and half in regard to flying objects in the sky. So much to unwrap here. I wanted to let some of this unfold with hopefully a little more clarity before commenting. I’m not sure that we have ANY more clarity after President Biden’s address (finally) about this yesterday, but here we go. This will be more of a spit-fire, staccato piece unlike my usual long-form Op-Essaytorials. One thing is for sure, all of this was on MY personal 2023 Bingo Card.
Slow Trickle Disclosure “speeds up?…
I often talked and written about how for years, I’ve looked up. Likely more than your average person. To get caught up , you can read my earlier pieces about this and more here:
https://www.joshwomack.com/editorials-letsgetmetaphysical/ive-always-looked-up
https://www.joshwomack.com/editorials-letsgetmetaphysical/paving-roads-on-the-moon https://www.joshwomack.com/editorials-letsgetmetaphysical/bumblebees-tictacs-andtimeasanabstract
On Thursday evening of February 9th, I was on my back deck enjoying a beautiful evening after the workday. It was warm, in the 60’s, with the beginnings of a beautiful sunset. I was looking up at the sky right above my home and saw a shiny, cylindrical object flying overhead. It was traveling east from due west. It seemed to be reflecting the setting sun’s light. I often see this. Airplanes flying overhead at dusk and sunset hours often reflect sunlight in bright and sometimes dramatic ways. Particularly, the ones from operators that have mostly unpainted, shiny craft in their fleet like American Airlines does. At first glance, the glinting sparkles from what I was seeing seemed normal and typical of what I see often. I watched it for a few moments more. By this time, it was almost right over me and I was unable to make out the wings. I’m suspecting the object was perhaps 20,000-25,000 feet in altitude, which would put it well above approach altitude but below standard cruising altitude for a commercial jet. I kept looking at it. It appeared silvery or almost iridescent even. It was cylindrical, like a plane fuselage but I could not see it’s wings. This sometimes happens when observing airplanes at dusk that are further away towards the horizon, but now this flying object was right over me. I was so intrigued that I went inside and out through my front door to continue watching it from in front of my house.
The object was moving swiftly and maybe a little faster than I would expect a commercial jetliner to be moving at that altitude, but not so abnormally that it seemed incredulous. The flying object then starting curving southward while still heading towards the east. As if it was possibly going towards the general Smyrna/Murfreesboro area. But as it maintained consistent altitude it surely wasn’t landing at the Smyrna airport. It disappeared from my capability of vision quicker than I expected. I took two photos of the object while I was observing it. One from my back porch and one from when I was in front of my house. Neither of them capture with any fidelity what I saw myself. Maybe with this new Iphone 14 there’s a way to get better photos (I need to get on that). I found this moment curious but didn’t think too much more about it until the days following. Here are the photos, They are direct screen-captures from my photos library. You can see the day and time-stamp info.
Photo #1 - Taken off my back deck at 5:26, 2/9/23 Photo #2 - Taken in front of my home at 5:27, 2/9/23
I live in the Nipper’s Corner area of Nashville. Right off Old Hickory between Franklin Rd. and Nolensville Rd. I am within 10 miles of Nashville’s airport (BNA) and see air traffic all the time above my home. My back deck faces almost perfectly west. After the shootdown events of last weekend, I went back and thought about this a bit more. There’s a nifty little App called Flightradar24. It gives real time data about all reporting aircraft flying above the United States 24-7. Yes. Commercial passenger jets. General aviation aircraft. Helicopters. Cargo planes. If they have their transponder on, you’ll see it on the App. You’ll even see military aircraft on Flightradar24 sometimes. But not always due to security. I went back and looked at the Flightradar24 data from the minutes I was observing this flying object on 2/9/23. Here are the screen captures. There is no plane traveling above me during that time or on the course that I saw the object travel. So, that means it could have been:
1. A military aircraft not interfacing with FAA using its transponder, and that looks unusual.
2. Air “clutter” – trash, bag or balloon, etc. but somehow seeming to show controlled movement.
3. Something high altitude, above radar sensors, that I was confusing as being much lower. Thus meaning it would have to be HUGE.
4. A controlled aviation vehicle within 10 miles of Nashville International Airport that was not reporting via transponder to the FAA.
5. A lower altitude flying object of some kind not reporting to the FAA and exhibiting controlled, swift flight with unusual visual characteristics.
6. Something else or “other.”
When this topic emerged with the Chinese Surveillance Balloon situation two weeks ago, the entire nation took notice. Citizens across the country filmed and photographed the high-altitude aerial platform. For days we watched, literally and virtually through our screens, the massive, 200-ft diameter cruise across the continental United States from the outskirts of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the Carolina Coastal Lowlands. The balloon was massive. You’ve probably already heard the surveillance apparatus instrument and solar-panel deck was “3 school buses long” or “as long as a commercial jetliner.” It’s been estimated that this balloon could carry upwards of 250,000 lbs! That’s a lot of helium. 4.2 million cubic feet of helium’s worth. In 2022, the cost per Cubic Foot od helium skyrocketed. From $2 per cubic foot to over $5! Conservatively, and assuming that China’s government gets its helium cheap, the helium alone in this balloon, likely cost between $8 and $12 million in U.S. dollars. Sorry for the digression. Moving on and getting back on point.
Last weekend, the United States used jet fighter aircraft to engage and destroy three flying objects in North American airspace. The first one, in Alaska was interesting. From initial reports, the object was first tracked outside of Nome Alaska late Thursday night on February, 9th. Some other later reports said it was tracked first outside of Anchorage. The object was brought down outside of Prudhoe Bay near Deadhorse, AK in the late morning of Friday, November 10th. Prudhoe is about 600 miles from either Nome or Anchorage. From either origination point, the object moving from SW to NE. The object was said to be at 40,000 feet. Reports are that it was moving at approximately 40 mph but was going against a 140 mph headwind. If this was a balloon, how was it moving against that kind of headwind? We shot down this object a week ago. There has still been no video or photographic footage of this shoot-down or recovered debris provided to the public. We’ve been told that the debris hasn’t been recovered and now “may never be.” Why is this?
The second object shot-down, was above Canada airspace on Saturday, 2/11. A United States F-22, on NORAD’s command and approved by the Canadian government brought down a “cylindrical object about the size of a car” (https://www.cbsnews.com/video/another-flying-object-shot-down-over-yukon-territory/). This flying object was first detected over Alaskan airspace. There has still been no video or photographic footage of this shoot-down or recovered debris provided to the public. We’ve been told that the debris hasn’t been recovered and now “may never be.” Why is this?
The third unidentified flying object, was first tracked in Montana but disappeared from radar. A next object appeared in Wisconsin and then was tracked over that state and across Michigan airspace into the air domain above Luke Huron before being shot down by a U.S. F-22. U.S. Pentagon officials say that they think this was the same object from Montana to Luke Huron. We’ve also learned that it took two Sidewinder missiles to bring this craft down as the first one fired apparently missed. We have gotten some pilot conversations from this event where descriptions of this object are discussed. It was described as “octagonal-shaped, about the size of a small car or ATV, with strings hanging from it, black but metallic and shiny.” The full audio can be found here - https://www.iheart.com/content/2023-02-15-audio-from-the-f-16-pilot-who-shot-down-the-ufo-over-lake-huron-released/ There has still been no video or photographic footage of this shoot-down or recovered debris provided to the public. We’ve been told that the debris hasn’t been recovered and now “may never be.” Why is this?
It could very well be likely that all three of these objects were benign in nature. Possibly they were scientific experimental balloon platforms. It’s a high probability that one or all of these objects could have been that. There’s the whole amateur PICO balloon culture (https://www.picoballoon.org/). It’s a thing. One of the latest theories is that the Yukon object may have been a PICO balloon from an amateur science club in Illinois. You can read about it here - https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/did-an-f-22-blow-up-some-illinois-hobbyists-pico-balloon.html
The Pentagon and White House have both indicated that the recent detection of these aerial objects is because NORAD broadened the scope of their observational and tracking platforms to capture smaller and slower moving objects and that’s why we saw this rash of seemingly new unexplained aerial object activity. They claim that this information was always there in the recorded data that is archived, but the new widened filtering now shows this in real-time. This is disconcerting though. What a huge possible vulnerability! If any or all three of these objects were really just hobbyist balloons, the United States and NORAD are going to look embarrassingly inept, out-of-touch, and foolish here. Bureaucratic discombobulation and compartmentalization failure at its finest. And speaking of bureaucratic discombobulation and compartmentalization failure…
Last Sunday, February 12th during a press briefing, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command commander, General Glenn VanHerck was selective in his words in describing these three anomalous objects:
“So I'm not going to categorize these balloons. We call them objects for a reason. Certainly, the event of South Carolina coast for the Chinese spy balloon, that was clearly a balloon. These are objects. I am not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure, or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they're — they're able to stay aloft. I would be hesitant to — and urge you not to attribute into any specific country. We don't know. That's why it's so critical to get our hands on these so that we can further assess and analyze what they are.”
There is a lot more interesting info to gleam from this press conference and you can go here to the transcript to dive deep - https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3296177/melissa-dalton-assistant-secretary-of-defense-for-homeland-defense-and-hemisphe/
So, we’ve had information coming from both the Pentagon and DOD for the past week, but it often seemed a bit at odds with the White House’s messaging during the same time. The day after the DOD’s Sunday Press Conference, the White House held one of their own. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, alongside retired Admiral John Kirby (National Security Council’s Communications Director) kicked off the briefing with the following exchange:
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I just wanted to make sure we address this from the White House. I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity — (laughter) — with these recent takedowns. Again, there is no indication of aliens or [extra]terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns. Wanted to make sure that the American people knew that, all of you knew that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.
Q: Are you disappointed by that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I — I’m not — (laughter) —
Q: Would you tell us if there were, really?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’m just — you know, I loved “E.T.,” the movie. But I’m gon — I’m just going to leave it there. (Laughter.) With that, with all seriousness, I know there’s a lot of questions about the flying objects. Admiral John Kirby is here with us today, and he’s going to have a topper — couple of things to say at the top about it and then take your questions. Okay?
MR. KIRBY: Thanks. Thanks for clearing that up, Karine. (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Anytime. Anytime.
MR. KIRBY: Makes my job easier. (Laughter.)
Here’s a link to the full transcript of the Press Conference - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/02/13/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-and-national-security-council-coordinator-for-strategic-communications-john-kirby-february-13-2023/
During this presser, Kirby goes on to say that he still wants to call them “objects” like General VanHerck and that they seemed non-hostile. He also suggested that they “moved with the wind” and seemed to have no propulsion, but kept insinuating that they were likely balloons or balloon-like. This was the communication direction the White House was taking this week. It continued with President Biden’s remarks yesterday. As a lead up to the President’s address, here’s what MSNBC was running as the chyron.
Yes. MSNBC actually used the acronym UFO on its chyron before President Biden’s statement on 2/16
Here’s a key passage from the President yesterday in this briefing.
“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were. But nothing — nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from other — any other country. The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research. When I came into office, I instructed our intelligence community to take a broad look at the phenomenon of unidentified aerial objects. We know that a range of entities, including countries, companies, and research organizations operate objects at altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate scientific research. I want to be clear: We don’t have any evidence that there has been a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky. We’re now just seeing more of them, partially because the steps we’ve taken to increase our radars — to narrow our radars. And we have to keep adapting our approach to delaying — to dealing with these challenges.”
The full transcript is here - http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/16/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-united-states-response-to-recent-aerial-objects/
Nowhere in his remarks did Biden use the term “UFO” or “unidentified flying object”. In fact, all week long both the White House and DOD has used interchangeable combinations of the words: unidentified, flying, objects, aerial, airborne, but they stayed away from putting “unidentified flying object” together. Further, they haven’t been using the term UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena), even though that’s been the accepted vernacular for years. Biden also suggested that the Executive branch (White House) was going to put together its own team to investigate these aerial objects. However, we ALREADY have that government office through Legislative branch in conjuncture with the DOD. Senators Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rubio (R-FL) have been working in a bi-partisan fashion for years to establish an office to investigate and identify these aerial phenomena. The AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) office was officially codified into law and established with the passing of the $800 Billion 2023 Defense Spending bill last fall.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably going “get to the point Josh. Or, do you even have a point Josh?”
All this week, we’ve seen citizens from all spectrums of life commenting on this topic. Many Conservatives on MSM and social media were suggesting that all of this regarding these aerial object shoot-downs were a wag-the-dog scenario to district from a myriad of other events that might be bad for Biden or the Government including the E. Palestine Ohio derailment disaster, the possible U.S. involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in Russia, Biden’s alleged business associations with China, Hunter’s laptop or even because “Epstein’s Client List” release is imminent (Epstein’s flight logs to Lolita Island, appointment notepads and Ghislaine Maxwell’s black book have been publicly available for months if not years). Some even suggested this was a possible FALSE FLAG event that utilized the playbook from the theorized PROJECT BLUE BEAM – an element of Canadian Conspiracy Theorist Serge Monast’s concepts that Government would stage a (fake) alien invasion as a means to distract the public from some other event(s). In the more liberal MSM and social media circles, the usual tack of “there must be a reasonable, mundane scientific answer to all this” has been prevalent. I’ll note, I’ve been mocked or derided for years by my smart and reasonable Liberal friends for my interest in the topic of UAP/UFO. The stoic, group think intellectual elitism among Liberals is actually a real thing. Not necessarily, pervasive per se, but a worthy point of some criticism, nonetheless.
And while the responses by the public have been predictable along political lines, certain mainstream media and political figures from across the board have been a little more open-minded and curious. Fox’s Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson has been giving light to this topic for months, long before these recent incidents. Coming out a briefing giving to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this week, Republican Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana stated “if you are confused, you understand the situation perfectly. This has been going on for a long, long, long time” and he suggested to “lock your doors.” He added that he has more questions than answers after leaving the closed door, classified meeting. Here’s MSN’s story on this where they use the term “UFO” in the headline - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/senator-warns-people-to-lock-your-doors-after-classified-hearing-on-ufos/ar-AA17vkFx?li=BBnbfcL .Tennessee’s 2nd District Congressman. Republican Tim Burchett, has been vocal since 2021 about how the government is not transparent about UAP/UFO. After the Congressional briefing (the first in 50 years) last May regarding UAP, Burchett said it was a “total joke.” Burchett claimed that multiple sources have told him that the United States is in possession of UAP crash wreckage and that the public is “ready for the truth.” (https://www.newsweek.com/tim-burchett-ufo-hearing-joke-wreckages-been-recovered-1707651)
At that same hearing last year Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said “It is not the human eye confusing objects in the sky, there is something there, measurable by multiple instruments. And yet seems to move in directions that are inconsistent with what we know of physics or science more broadly.” Before the meeting, On May 10th, 2022 he tweeted:
In 2019, Pew Research released some sobering results regarding Americans continuing and eroding distrust of government and other institutions of confidence and authority. While there are differences between ethnic and socio-economic groups, the general result was that 76% Americans polled believe that trust in the government has declined in the past 20 years. We don’t trust government, we don’t trust the Corporations that we feel like buy off our politicians. We don’t trust each other. From the study, here are two comments by the participants that were poignant:
“Everything is impacted by the lack of trust – and the driver of the declining trust is the head of the federal government. Trust cannot be repaired without truth – which is in short supply.” Woman, 56
“The *entire* general functioning of society. Trust in the federal government is low due to, in my opinion, unqualified people running it who are often dishonest. When you can’t trust elected and appointed officials, it impedes essentially everything in the government’s purview from working properly.” Man, 30
Here’s a great resource from Pew regarding this study - https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/07/22/trust-and-distrust-in-america/
Coincidentally, YouGov did a survey that same year that found that 54% of Americans surveyed believe that the (U.S.) Government knows something about UFOs that is not being shared with the public. Here’s that info and more - https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/07/03/UFOs-government-secret-americans-poll
There’s a general consensus among the people who follow this topic and those that just have a casual understanding of it, that there is a likelihood that there is more going on with the Phenomena than what our government has disclosed to us. This has been an on-going struggle for 80 years since the summer of 1947, at least. From project Sign and Grudge, to Majestic12 and Project Bluebook to AATIP, we have an almost century-long lack of confidence that our elected officials and the compartments of the defense apparatus of government have been forthright with the American people. Whether it’s because of national security issues involving possession of fantastic, recovered NHI (Non-Human Intelligence) technology, a concern for the way a largely theologically-based society would handle the revelation of NHI, the potential loss of power for our government institutions due to global knowledge of NHI or some other innocuous or nefarious reason, it doesn’t matter. The realization that human intelligence is not an anomaly in the entirety of universal (or multi-universal) existence is one of the greatest questions, if not the greatest question, of all time. One of the earliest official reports about the topic was obtained via FOIA and it’s a letter from Project Sign, established by Air Force General Nathan Twining in 1948. Here’s his letter Brigadier General George Shulgen in the proceeding year before the department was even created and just a couple of months after the Roswell incident.
Senator Gillibrand wrote a letter yesterday to the DOD about how the newly formed AARO Department is already at risk for not having enough funding.
AARO released a report last month. They let us know that some of these sightings over the past 20 years are balloons or “balloon-like” (is that what the three from last weekend were?), regular airborne craft, trash or conventional drones. But almost half of these sightings, by military personnel who reported them, remain…unexplained.
We deserve to know. We have the right to know. All of it. Whatever “IT” is or ends up being. Slow Trickle Disclosure continues.
POST SCRIPT EXTRA FEATURE! - In the prior piece from last fall titled “I’ve always looked up” I talked about a unusual sighting event from October 13th of 2019. That day, I randomly took a photo of the sky looking up from where my wife and I were at the Deerwood Arboretum park in Brentwood, TN. I posted an Instagram story about it that day with a caption to the effect of “watching high altitude UFOs in Brentwood”. I ddin’t think the photo captured anything other than the clear blue sky and some tope of trees, but I went back and looked at the photo recently. Here you go… :)
