In a break from below-ground chaos from Republicans, rattling cages in all direction, a quick look this Wednesday afternoon at the advancing news-cycle item of unidentified flying objects, which seems to have gained reputable status lately.
Although ‘UFOs’ have been part of American folklore for decades, from science-fiction movies/novels and what-not, it’s begining to look like they’re finally getting some significant down-to-earth reality checks:

The Pentagon has confirmed these images of UFOs are part of ongoing investigations https://t.co/YRG4t8UbZu pic.twitter.com/55MWWBiZyx

— CNN (@CNN) May 19, 2021

Next month, a report compiled by the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense will be presented to Congress on “unidentified aerial phenomena” after the leak/release of some weird-ass video made by US military aircraft in run-ins with them.
As a studied warm-up, last year the Pentagon declassified three such videos captured by Navy pilots and the popular shit hit the fan — background via NBC News this morning:

In August, the Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to investigate and “gain insight” into the “nature and origins” of unidentified flying objects.
Earlier that year, the Department of Defense declassified three videos taken by Navy pilots — one from 2004 and two from 2015 — that showed mysterious objects flying at high speeds across the sky.

“The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified,’” Pentagon officials said in a statement at the time.

The three videos had leaked years earlier, but Pentagon officials said they declassified the footage to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos.”

A separate leaked Navy video, captured in July 2019, showed a sphere-shaped unidentified object flying over water near San Diego.
The footage, obtained by a documentary filmmaker and shared with NBC News, appeared to show the mysterious object flying for a few minutes before disappearing into the water.

And on Sunday, two former Navy pilots were interviewed by “60 Minutes” on CBS News about a UFO sighting over the Pacific Ocean in 2004.
Cmdr. Dave Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich spotted the unidentified object during a training exercise but were unable to classify it. Fravor described it as a “little white Tic-Tac-looking object,” adding that it lacked conventional exhaust plumes and had no wings or visible markings.

It also moved erratically, the pilots said.

In an interview with NBC News that aired in February, Fravor described the 2004 encounter, calling the object “the strangest, most obscure thing I’ve ever seen flying.”

“As soon as we looked down, we see the whitewater, and then we see this little white Tic Tac,” Fravor told NBC’s “The Overview.”
“It’s pointing north-south and it’s just going forward, back, left, right,” he said, adding that it was bouncing around “like a ping-pong ball.”
…
But aliens aside, the Pentagon has been interested in UFOs because they could pose threats to national security.
Lt. Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot, told “60 Minutes” that pilots on training flights have seen unexplained phenomena “every day for at least a couple years.”

“I am worried, frankly,” Graves said in the “60 Minutes” interview.
“You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue. But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We’re happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day.”

And add to the serious — former President Obama also chimed-in on the UFO question during an appearance Monday night on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” and when asked about the ‘aerial phenomena,’ joked: “When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air.”
In apparent earnestness, however, he continued:

“But what is true — and I’m actually being serious here — is that there’s footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are … We can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern … So I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is. But I have nothing to report to you today.”

Well, thanks, Obama.

Further UFO shit (USAToday from Monday):

Luis Elizondo, former director of the defense department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, told “60 Minutes” that some reported sightings don’t have explanations.

“We’re going through our due diligence. Is it some sort of new type of cruise missile technology that China has developed? Is it some sort of high-altitude balloon that’s conducting reconnaissance? Ultimately when you have exhausted all those what-ifs and you’re still left with the fact that this is in our airspace and it’s real, that’s when it becomes compelling, and that’s when it becomes problematic,” Elizondo told the broadcast news outlet.
…
Former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on March 19 that the report would include information that cannot easily be explained.

Ratcliffe said some UFO sightings have been declassified in the past, but the report will present more information to the American people.

“There have been sightings all over the world,” he said.
“And when we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you, it’s not just a pilot or just a satellite or some intelligence collection. Usually, we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things.”

Isn’t that some shit? Beyond having to put with with lying, insurrectional asshole Republicans, we’re in the apex of some close-encounter crap (with a deleted scene of governmental bullshit lying)::

“Traffic is white luminous … AE517 Do you wish to report a UFO, over? … Negative”

(Illustration: Still-image from Pentagon-released video, and found here).