JD Vance, the vice-president of the United States, said this weekend that he considers aliens to be “demons”.
As the war in Iran continues, petrol and grocery prices soar and chaos continues at US airports as a partial government shutdown endures, Vance appeared on the conservative Benny Show podcast, released Saturday, to promise that he would spend time looking into what he called his “obsession” with UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors.
Johnson, who bills his show as the place for “cutting, behind-the-scenes insight into the global conflict for freedom”, wondered if Vance, who has been noticeably quiet about Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East that he is said to oppose, had yet looked at any of the files about unidentified flying objects – known these days as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – which the president has promised to release.
“I actually haven’t,” Vance replied, mustering significantly more enthusiasm than for any previous question about the US-Israel military strikes on Iran.
“I have not been able to spend enough time on this, but I am going to. Trust me, I’m obsessed with this.”
The God-fearing vice-president’s fixation, it was further revealed, extended to the question of the existence of extraplanetary beings, and where they might fit into a wider conversation about religion.
“I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion,” he said.
I was curious, and apparently while the VP does get full clearance automatically, they don’t get full access automatically, due to need to know compartmentalization rules. So Vance is cleared for anything area 51 reports to the White House, but not cleared to go there unless Trump says there’s a reason. I doubt that would be much of a speed bump, but technically there is a restriction.
Hmm, well, that feels shady. I know when looking at the Snowden thing that I found out that the CIA threatens even members of congress with “treason” if they look too closely at their stuff and only select congressional members can provided very limited oversite at all… I guess the military is just as bad. It feels like the VP, being the second-highest person actually voted by the people into their position, should be able to take a look at whatever, but I guess all of those machines chug on without meaningful oversight at all.
The IG departments really need to be given full clearance and taken away from the executive. The parties have also almost completely broken checks and balances at this point, the orange turd is of course abusing it, but in general too much power has been given to the parties, and our checks have been badly eroded by a lazy and weak congress.
I guess there isn’t a good answer. I think parties should be outlawed anyway. The congress needs to have a tighter rein on war declaration and the definition of “war” needs to be broadened to include all engagements. The re-definition of “war” to whatever nonsense they use now is the source of many problems. Once somebody gets into the top tier of the government: Supreme court, Senate, President, they need full clearance for everything. There shouldn’t be things hidden from those lawmakers. Also, as you say, IG departments need to have full clearance, and they need some kind of whistleblower protection from sitting presidents.
I’m not optimistic at all that anything will or even can be done to fix the problems. Of course that goes for every government on the planet, so any other government weighing in with their two cents are usually hypocrites.