We Have a Real UFO Problem. And It's Not Balloons. - Politico

[Justice matters.]

We Have a Real UFO Problem. And It’s Not Balloons.

America’s fixation on the recent objects floating over the country overlooks a much more serious problem with advanced technology aircraft that we can’t explain.

...

On a clear, sunny day in April 2014, two F/A-18s took off for an air combat training mission off the coast of Virginia. The jets, part of my Navy fighter squadron, climbed to an altitude of 12,000 and steered towards Warning Area W-72, an exclusive block of airspace ten miles east of Virginia Beach. All traffic into the training area goes through a single GPS point at a set altitude — almost like a doorway into a massive room where military jets can operate without running into other aircraft. Just at the moment the two jets crossed the threshold, one of the pilots saw a dark gray cube inside of a clear sphere — motionless against the wind, fixed directly at the entry point. The jets, only 100 feet apart, zipped past the object on either side. The pilots had come so dangerously close to something they couldn’t identify that they terminated the training mission immediately and returned to base.

“I almost hit one of those damn things!” the flight leader, still shaken by the incident, told us shortly after in the pilots’ ready room. We all knew exactly what he meant. “Those damn things” had been plaguing us for the previous eight months.

I joined the U.S. Navy in 2009 and underwent years of rigorous training as a pilot. Specifically, we are trained to be expert observers in identifying aircraft with our sensors and our own eyes. It’s our job to know what’s in our operating area. That’s why, in 2014, after upgrades were made to our radar system, our squadron made a startling discovery: There were unknown objects in our airspace.

...

Initially, the objects were showing up on our newly upgraded radars and we assumed they were “ghosts in the machine,” or software glitches. But then we began to correlate the radar tracks with multiple surveillance systems, including infrared sensors that detected heat signatures. Then came the hair-raising near misses that required us to take evasive action.

Link: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/02/28/ufo-uap-navy-intelligence-00084537

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/02/28/ufo-uap-navy-intelligence-00084537

[underpants]

1. 👽

Very interesting

[Justice matters.]

3. It is "strange" that these "UAPs" fly exactly where they "should" not...

I saw a couple of these a few years back but they were over the city.

[underpants]

11. It could be another part of the govt using the space

for something the Navy or Air Force doesn’t know about.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. I do think something is going on.

Whether it’s technology that our government is keeping secret or something else, I don’t know.

[Justice matters.]

4. Well, I believe the great pyramids of Egypt were not entirely built by human beings.

The way the giant blocks are assembled (you can't insert a sheet of paper between them), nobody on earth at the time had the technology required to do it.

[PCIntern]

6. It was Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone

Who built the Pyramids.

As an aside: I agree. There’s
Ore going on than we admit to.

[IbogaProject]

7. The blocks were moved under water

The blocks were quarried underwater. They were moved under boyant rafts. They were moved up into place underwater similar to how canals work. Once placed the water was removed and the stones took on CO2 and swelled into a tight fit. They weren't built by slaves but by professional engineer workers.

[Effete Snob]

8. "you can't insert a sheet of paper between them"

Are you often able to insert a sheet of paper between the rocks in rock walls? I used to believe in all that crap, but in retrospect the "you can't insert a sheet of paper between them" is a real nonsense observation.

Why did the aliens start out making pyramids like this:



And then the aliens started making pyramids that look like this:



Before moving on to making larger smooth-sided ones?

Did the aliens start out dumb, and only able to make smaller, less sophisticated structures, and then learn as they went along?

And why, when the aliens got to Mexico, did they built completely different pyramids there, with steps leading to a structure on a flat top?

They came from far across the galaxy, but it took them centuries of research and development, starting with simple stone structures and moving up, to learn how to build things out of rocks?

Humans, on the other hand, are remarkably intelligent and will adapt to the materials available to do amazing things. The assumption that ancient Egyptians could not build pyramids on their own, despite having thousands of years of experience with large rock structures, is simply a manifestation of racism. Ancient humans were humans, and every bit as intelligent as modern humans - and with a lot fewer distractions for solving difficult problems.

But there are those who cannot handle the fact that brown people living long ago could have done something impressive with their accumulated knowledge and skill.

[edisdead]

28. You are setting a narrative

You are setting a narrative and then shooting holes in it as though your narrative is the only way it could play out. Why do the pyramids in Mexico have to be built by aliens simply because someone thinks that the ones in Egypt may have been? as you mention they are totally different so why are you correlating them simply for the purpose of shooting holes in it as though that were the argument to start with?



Disclaimer: I have no idea if pyramids were built by aliens or not.

[Effete Snob]

35. Oh, okay

Is there a list of pyramids that were built by aliens and ones which were built by humans?

Because it seems pretty dumb of the aliens to show up and build stuff that is basically a variation on a theme of things humans already knew how to build.

Like, they could have built the pyramids out of moon rock, Mars rock or, gosh, solid glass or some really cool material that would have held up better. But, instead, they used locally-quarried rock, because the aliens didn’t know how to move rock long distances.

I can walk into countless buildings and see granite from Arkansas and marble from Italy, and it is surprising how limited the aliens were in their selection of materials for the megalithic structures they built.

They weren’t very imaginative in their overall design concepts. I’ve been to Giza and I’ve been to St. Louis and, frankly, the stainless clad Gateway Arch is more impressive from a design and construction standpoint. So we eventually ended up being much more creative and sophisticated builders than the aliens, who simply improved upon existing step pyramids.

[edisdead]

37. I didn't say any pyramids were built by aliens.

So again you are setting a narrative and then defeating that narrative in an attempt to win an argument.

Do you know who and why the pyramids were built? I do not. Personally I think it is a bit far fetched to think that aliens built them. But I cannot answer for sure how or why they were built. I also don’t expend a whole lot of energy on the subject.

[Effete Snob]

40. D o you know who and why the pyramids were built?

Yes.

I’ve even been to Giza. I’ve also been to Stonehenge and several other megalithic sites. There are a lot more of them than people realize, and whenever I travel for business or other reasons, I make it a point to visit ancient megalithic structures.

Who built the pyramids and why is really well documented because the Egyptians wrote it down and we can read it. We can also read the work of people who have used scientific inquiry to learn all sorts of things about the pyramids and other megalithic structures. They are fascinating and impressive monuments built by a species which is very clever - humans.

One of the disheartening things is the fundamental racist assumption that the people living at that time were too dumb to have figured out how to solve problems using the technology available to them.

And, absolutely, there are ancient technologies that are no longer known because they used techniques that came from thousands of years of not having many things other than natural earthly materials and the occasional meteor.

But, here’s the thing about that… if you went to Intel and asked their top engineers to make vacuum tubes, they wouldn’t know how. Sure, they could consult reference materials and eventually figure it out, and there are some which are still made. But that is a very recent and nearly obsolete technology.

But who built them and why? Yes, that’s very well documented by the Egyptians themselves. It’s a shame that racism is so casually and deeply ingrained. It’s a combination of racism and having a limited imagination, and so some people are compelled to invoking gods, spirits, genies or aliens who decided to build stuff out of rocks and make it look like humans did it.

[ForgedCrank]

12. Although it is

true that when you sit one rock on top of another, you can't slide paper in between them, making precision flat surfaces was absolutely within reach of people in that era.
Even today, the best large machine beds and gibs are scraped by hand with precision unmatched by machine surfacing.
If you ever see a machine surface with all the random scrape marks on it, that it a hand scraped surface. It's not just a modern skill either, although it is a dying art and not so easily mastered.
But that was not a required skill to build ancient pyramids either.

[Effete Snob]

18. What I like...

Is the "logic" which connects:

(a) I saw something in the sky and don't know what it is, and

(b) I saw a large stone structure and don't know how it was built.

Therefore, the large stone structure has something to do with the thing in the sky.

It's the one stop shop for "the answer to stuff I don't know."

[crickets]

20. There is a theory that the blocks were poured concrete,

made from reusable molds and the available sand and lime or natron. It's currently unproven, but seems a much more feasible method than cutting and dragging the massive blocks into place. This method might also explain the precision of the sharp-edged blocks found at Pumapunku as well as the huge 'tetris' stones in the walls of Cusco.

There are some interesting articles and YouTube vids (I know, but not all of them are garbage) on the subject. Certain technologies have been discovered, lost, and discovered again multiple times in human history. This may be one of them.

https://news.mit.edu/2008/gathering-concrete-evidence

[edisdead]

29. I sort of believe this is more in line

For the explanation of how they came to be.

[Effete Snob]

32. And they built fake quarries to throw everyone off the scent

Clever.

It's fascinating how geologists with years of study of the geology of Egypt are unable to tell the difference between quarried limestone, granite and concrete.

https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Pyramids-of-Egypt/Quarries-of-the-pyramids-of-Egypt.php

And then the Egyptians made fake drawings to cover up how they moved massive stone objects.

[edisdead]

38. Why do you think you are arguing with me?

What is with your snark? It seems to be set to eleven.

As I said this person’s opinion seems to be more in line with what I think which is that there is a mechanical answer here rather than fantasy.

[Archae]

5. I saw an interview with the head of the group "MUFON..."

Mutual UFO Network, very pro-alien spacecraft group.

He was angry since just about everybody and their mothers now have video and still cameras with them all the time, yet photos of "UFO's" look the same as they always did.

Fuzzy blobs of light or obvious and not so obvious fakes.

Face it, post WW2, we had our own versions of fairy stories, and while aliens may make at times good fiction, movies, TV, books, in reality there still is *NO* credible evidence.

[CrispyQ]

9. An old Calvin & Hobbs cartoon had Calvin saying,

"I think the fact that extraterrestrial life hasn't tried to contact us is proof that intelligent life exists elsewhere."

[TxGuitar]

36. I don't know much but I think MUFON

Starts with the assumption any given new UFO report can be easily explained as something man made. Or am I thinking of another group?

[Archae]

39. I really have no idea.

I was just relating what I heard from the guy.

[sarcasmo]

10. I want to believe.

[TxGuitar]

15. I like Carl Sagan's line better:

"I don't want to believe, I want to know"

[fightforfreedom]

13. OMG!

[Disaffected]

14. All those herein bringing fact and logic to the debate,

STOP IT NOW! You are stomping on cherished beliefs and killing the buzz.

[XorXor]

16. I hope this all BS. I really would prefer to not be vaporized by an alien death ray

I am already dealing with enough stuff as it is, being harvested for food is not something I can deal with at this time.

[Effete Snob]

19. I think you are pretty safe

They won't vaporize or eat you.

They will land and build you a pyramid if you are nice.

Well, they used to do that for hundreds of years. Then they quit. Now, they just show up, fly around trying not to be seen, mutilate some livestock, and stick things up rednecks' buttholes.

It sucks they don't build stuff anymore, but these days they are content with whatever they are finding in rednecks' buttholes.

[Justice matters.]

25. They probably fear they would get shot at...

First, AR-15'ed, and asked questions later (if able to answer).

[fightforfreedom]

17. I saw Garland at the helm of a UFO.

He is not investigating. He is taking joy rides.

[crickets]

21. Gee, folks.

All of those sarcastic, demeaning articles and interviews about ET over the decades have really trained people to dismiss the subject, haven't they? It's almost as frightening to see people dismiss the issue as the issue itself.

I believe the pilots who say they're seeing something they can't identify. This does not necessarily mean we're being visited by beings from another planet, but it does mean that there are things flying around in the sky that we do not understand. That's a problem that should be taken seriously.

[Justice matters.]

22. Thank you.

I would expect more 'open-minded' comments on a Liberal general discussion board, but it is what it is. None of them will change my real-life experiences, though, if that's what they hope to do.

[niyad]

26. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your

philosophy (eta: science).

[edisdead]

30. Wonderful reply!

Bravo!

[Kid Berwyn]

34. Seems to trigger an automatic response in some.

From 2014:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10026021551

[Hassin Bin Sober]

23. I don't know how much Rubio et al need to hear about publicly.

Wether this is our technology or some foreign adversary’s technology I doubt there will be any “transparency “ and I’m sure the people at The Pentagon are working on it. They live for this shit.

Dare I say I’m sure “top men” (and women) are working on it?

[Kid Berwyn]

24. Tom Cruise never flew against UFO

The author of the OP was a real Navy fighter pilot —

On a clear, sunny day in April 2014, two F/A-18s took off for an air combat training mission off the coast of Virginia. The jets, part of my Navy fighter squadron, climbed to an altitude of 12,000 and steered towards Warning Area W-72, an exclusive block of airspace ten miles east of Virginia Beach. All traffic into the training area goes through a single GPS point at a set altitude — almost like a doorway into a massive room where military jets can operate without running into other aircraft. Just at the moment the two jets crossed the threshold, one of the pilots saw a dark gray cube inside of a clear sphere — motionless against the wind, fixed directly at the entry point. The jets, only 100 feet apart, zipped past the object on either side. The pilots had come so dangerously close to something they couldn’t identify that they terminated the training mission immediately and returned to base.

[Takket]

27. Occam's Razor

That’s all I have to see on the matter

I believe there is some weird stuff about but it probably has a simple explanation.

The pilots encountering a balloon for example seems much more likely. They say it was stationary in the wind. Sure it might seem that way but at the velocity they fly it is all a matter of perspective and relativity.

There are basically zero major events on the planet that happen without being recorded on camera anymore. Yet we don’t have the slam dunk crystal clear alien ship for some reason.

[Effete Snob]

33. There's a great line in the movie ET

...which used to be a common refrain among UFO folks, to the effect of there are tens of thousands of auto accidents every year and not a film or picture of one happening.

But, yeah, it's not true anymore. Whenever there is an unusual meteor or other atmospheric event, there are security cameras, dash cams, etc.. That's not to say they capture everything, but it must be so frustrating to travel thousands of light years to a relatively uninteresting planet with few resources and then have the US government cover up your existence.

[ecstatic]

31. You have my attention, but which country could it be?

I don't think it's something extraterrestrial. My opinion is that it's either another country with extremely advanced military capabilities or a living creature that can fly and go invisible. lol.

[Trueblue1968]

41. i hav NEVER seen a UFO but i believe in them