Oh look, another interview between Stephen Colbert and former US President Barack Obama, in which the topic of aliens is brought up! Could it possibly include some ground-breaking revelation about the UFO phenomenon, which has gathered so much attention since 2017?
…NOPE.
After recounting Obama’s past comment in a podcast where he was asked about the possibility of alien life, which triggered a deluge of online speculation and even an official response from president Trump—who just couldn’t pass the opportunity to one-up his predecessor, by announcing the ‘official’ release of all government documentation on UFOs or aliens… which hasn’t taken effect, to the surprise of no-one—Colbert brought up the subject yet again in the usual soft-ball manner expected from late-night hosts, to give Obama an opportunity to make fun—yet again—of the UFO topic in general, and the speculations surrounding the alleged classified retrieval programs of non-human technology in particular.
The 44th president of the United States recurred to an old argument often invoked by skeptics: the government is *terrible* at keeping secrets, ergo if there was some classified facility where “little green men” (sic) were being kept, surely one of the guards there would have taken a selfie with the dead aliens to impress their girlfriend, and the big cover-up would have been blown up a long time ago. I mean, come on you guys!
And to add a cherry on top, Obama appointed himself as a potential emissary for humanity in the super hypothetical event of first contact with an off-world intelligence, based on his number of qualifications—“I’ve got some experience in statecraft, in diplomacy… um, I’m friendly.”
Aside from expecting what is sure to be a hilarious response from Trump—”Nobody’s got better diplomatic skills than me, I make THE BEST deals, just look at Iran and the tariffs!”— I find it ironic that a former president of the United States wants the American public to think anyone can enter any restricted facility without handing over their personal cellphone or any electronic device. If that’s the case, why did his administration spend over half a trillion dollars in national defense discretionary funds, which would presumably include any sort of measures and countermeasures to ensure sensitive information doesn’t leak into unauthorized eyes?
Mind you, I’m skeptical of the on-going rumors that alien-recovered samples—including bodies—are being kept at Area 51. But I am also aware that, to this day, no confirmed photos from inside the hangars of that still-secret military facility have ever been leaked. So I find mister Obama’s facile arguments meant to produce canned laughs for prime time more than a little facetious.
What will it take for the public to realize that Barack Obama has never taken the subject of UFOs seriously, not once in his entire public career? Search our archives, since we’ve got the receipts to show.
But what I find hilarious is his suggestion that alien intelligence would find him a suitable emissary to represent the rest of us. If there is one thing I love about the UFO phenomenon, is its egalitarianism: the close encounter experience can happen to people of *all* walks of life. Think about it, when you go out to take a walk in the park and see a bunch of ants near their anthill, do you stop and say “Oh look, that one look like it has higher diplomatic skills than the rest, I’ll go and try to communicate with it!”?
So there’s an equal chance non-human entities will want to get acquainted with a chicken farmer than with an ex-president, regardless of the former’s resume. Probably higher, statistically speaking, since there are more farmers out in the world than world leaders.
In fact, one of my personal favorite close encounter cases of all times is the one with Joe Simonton, in 1961. Simonton—a lonely poultry farmer in Eagle River, Wisconsin— reported an encounter with entities coming out of a silver flying saucer, in which foodstuffs in the form of cooked wafers were exchanged for fresh water from his kitchen—the famous ‘alien pancakes’.
Simonton, in the non-filtered style of the time, described the ufonauts as looking like ‘Italians‘ (short in stature, dark-skinned) and several years ago I had the opportunity to draw a commission for Rob Kristoffersen, former host of the Our Strange Skies podcast, in which he requested a menagerie of aliens from the classic high-strangeness cases of old—including one of Simonton’s alien pancake cooks.
Although it wasn’t my original intention, after completing the piece (commissions still welcome!) I found it funny how the end result of my artistic rendition had a certain resemblance to a former promoter of ‘Hope and Change’ in the US government.
…Maybe that’s the reason Simonton’s pancakes tasted like cardboard—according to him.
