I think 22 million pays enough to keep a small staff on hand with enough for rent, research and archival equipment and travel. Its probably a generous budget for what they actually do, but nothing compared to what would be needed for some sort of investigative project where actual investigation was necessary.

The legit news agencies have given up because they smell a rat, they are being sucked into a trap designed to discredit them. There are too many dead ends, and if it were what it appears to be, a super secret leak that was compromised and then quickly plugged, you’d be hearing a lot more from more experienced reporters. So far all I’ve seen is commentaries on the commentaries on 2nd hand websites desperate to believe.

I think the NYT bit a baited hook, but spit it out before it could be set. They won’t make that mistake again, but they’re not particularly eager to admit they went after the bait in the first place. The alternative, that they discovered a super secret UFO program and now are not following up on the story just doesn’t wash.

As far as the super-secret UFO project, that is nothing new. As far back as the ’40s and ’50s there were official government projects to investigate UFOs–Project Sign, Project Grudge, Project Blue Book, so it would not be surprising if there were others.

As far as I’m concerned, this fails the Strangeness Test. If we do encounter machines in our atmosphere operated by alien technologies, they would be so technologically advanced over us they would not even be recognizable as artifacts. We would probably mistake them for biological or meteorological, even spiritual phenomena.

19th century UFOs looked like balloons. Blimps and zeppelins were things they could relate to.

Now there ‘is’ something:

“Someone Explain To Me The Alien Alloys Before I Fucking Explode”

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/someone-explain-to-me-the-alien-alloys-before-i-fucking-1821387673

That’s what hit me like a 2×4 when I read the Times article.

I’ve noticed a tendency in myself to focus, too much, on the perceived threats of The Trump Gang, and triage everything else.

Like several stories about exoplanets, and the Big Black Hole. Lots going on in archaeology and anthropology that looks interesting…as I skim it hurriedly.

We’re a sick country these days. A lack of interest in an apparent UFO encounter is just one symptom.

We get a semi-credible news report from credible media, supposedly from “official government sources” that suggests earth is being visited by extraterrestrials, and nobody gives a shit. Whether or not the story is true or not, you would expect all sorts of follow-up, commentary, debate, even response from both sober scientific authorities and wacko crackpots.

But nothing. Nobody seems to care. Neither confirmation nor debunk surfaces. In a few more weeks it will be like it never happened. Its like the whole nation has Attention Deficit Disorder. Our national short-term memory is shot.

Its very strange.

This is fake news, designed to distract us from the real news.

The video is supposedly released by the Pentagon, but I have this feeling it is either a hoax, or a joke, perhaps a doctored training video. That’s probably why the MSM hasn’t given it much more analysis or airplay, and seems to be mainly pursuing the political angle of the story. They smell a rat, too. And no one seems to be explaining what all that gibberish on the screen is about. Maybe I just don’t know the display, but I didn’t see anything on the screen that looked like a compass heading, or an altitude indication, or an airspeed or mach number.

Which raises the question, why should a sensational video like this be released, apparently with sterling government bona fides and yet no one seems to be following up on it?