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Clinton Campaign Chair: 'The American People Can Handle The Truth' On UFOs (usatoday.com) 287

An anonymous reader writes: In what seems like an April Fools' Day prank story but is surprisingly real, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, says that he has convinced Hillary Clinton to declassify as many documents as possible related to Area 51 and UFOs. On the matter of alien visitation, Clinton has previously stated that "I think we may have been [visited already]. We don't know for sure." Meanwhile, Democratic rival Bernie Sanders has been dismissive of UFO talk. And on the other side of the isle, everyone surely already knows how likely Republican nominee Donald Trump feels about illegal aliens. "The U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what's going on with unidentified aerial phenomena," said John Podesta, who was also a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
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Clinton Campaign Chair: 'The American People Can Handle The Truth' On UFOs

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  • by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:30PM (#51871805)
    ANY truth out of that campaign would be a breath of fresh air, so it might as well be about the lack of aliens. Which of course nobody who thinks there's hidden information will believe, so they might as well lie about that, too.
    • by The Real Dr John ( 716876 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:36PM (#51871855) Homepage

      Hillary and The Truth haven't been getting along for years, their differences are irreconcilable.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        The truth depends upon what the meaning of "truth" is...
      • by TimSSG ( 1068536 )
        I think Hillary is trying for better than 90% positive rating from the conspiracy crowd. Tim S.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08, 2016 @07:52PM (#51872261)

        Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claimed that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico.
        This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and the federal government.
        However, you may NOT know that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months after that historic day, Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., Hillary Rodham, John F. Kerry, William Jefferson Clinton, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Charles E. Schumer, and Barbara Boxer were born.

        See what happens when aliens breed with sheep.. This piece of information may clear up a lot of things .

        • If you're going to make up a conspiracy, at least try to make it somewhat factual. The estimated range for birth would have been Apr 17, 1948 to Apr 23, 1948. None of them were born then.


          Jun 22, 1933 - Dianne Feinstein
          Mar 26, 1940 - Nancy Pelosi
          Nov 11, 1940 - Barbara Boxer
          Dec 11, 1943 - John F. Kerry
          Aug 19, 1946 - William Jefferson Clinton
          Oct 26, 1947 - Hillary Rodham Clinton
          Mar 31, 1948 - Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.
          Nov 17, 1948 - Howard Dean
          Nov 23, 1950 - Charles E. Schumer

          You do have some legitimate choice

  • by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:30PM (#51871807) Journal

    It's just an aircraft test area. I am sure they are happy letting clowns claim mysterious UFOs with strange capabilities -- the more to scare the Rooskies with. Who, by the way, are the only ones who don't think those are real UFOs.

    • Yeah there are people who have come forth and openly spoken about what actually went on there around the time period of the UFO conspiracy theories (i.e. Roswell.) I remember one dude even mentioned how they had to avoid Russian spy satellites, and decoy them by painting the image of an oddly shaped aircraft on the ground. I am curious if there is more to the Roswell story itself; if not a weather balloon, then probably some kind of experimental craft that went off course.

      I highly highly highly doubt we've

  • the e.t. vote (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:33PM (#51871829)

    She is just trying to get votes. 50% of Americans believe we have been visited by extraterrestrials, that is a large voter base worth going after. It takes very little effort for her to make a campaign promise like this that she does not even need to keep. And, garners her potential votes that could tip the scale when it comes time for the election. Welcome to politics 101.

    • Re:the e.t. vote (Score:5, Interesting)

      by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @07:14PM (#51872093)
      I think it's more likely about a good distraction. Get that conversation riled up to draw attention away from anything scandalous that would prevent her from getting elected.
      • by Burz ( 138833 )

        I think it's more likely about a good distraction. Get that conversation riled up to draw attention away from anything scandalous that would prevent her from getting elected.

        I gotta agree. The 1990s want their belief crazes (and stupid TV show and acid wash jeans) back.

    • Given that Sanders just got a Papal invite I'm guessing she decided to try something, anything.

    • If she's going off into UFOs and magic pyramids now, I'd LOVE to hear her debate Ron Paul, perhaps in Haight Ashbury.

    • by Lotana ( 842533 )

      50% of Americans believe we have been visited by extraterrestrials

      My bullshit detector is going off. There is no way that could be true. Do you have any citations?

  • by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:34PM (#51871841) Journal
    I am a weekly member of the church of the truth is out there from when flip phone users Mulder and Scully first aired.

    Yeah, it made me want that phone, and I can still remember people thinking that it was as cool as the Firebird popup headlights.

    But no. People can't handle the truth about Global Warming and cardboard pretenders to the Presidency... so no, alien life would be widely interpreted as the promised return to earth of someone's religious savior.

  • Are you high? This is a presidential campaign, the very LAST thing people can handle here or would possibly expect is any kind of truth!

  • About one-tenth of the time, Hillary Clinton seems to me to say things that aren't logical, or don't make much sense.
  • Truth is simple. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:41PM (#51871891) Journal
    Area 51 was some Air Force cold war projects. Used some vaguely humanoid looking dummies for some radiation effects study and bombings. Some sketchy reports and leaks from confused lower level workers in the base gave rise to the rumors. Once the town and some of the businesses realized how lucrative it was, they stoked the flame.

    Face it, any fool can ask questions. Asking questions is not difficult. Answering it is difficult, and it is impossible to wake up someone pretending to be asleep.

  • Clinton Campaign Chair: 'The American People Can Handle The Truth' On UFOs

    Handle the truth that, actually, it's a lot of fuss about nothing that was whipped up into a pop-culture thing for a while and still keeps a few radio hosts in business, but actually has no substance to it and never did? Yeah, they can probably handle that.

    Thing is, the ones who actually care at all won't (want to) believe it.

  • by sethstorm ( 512897 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:48PM (#51871939) Homepage

    Instead of bothering with UFO's, why not deal with things like:
    * What was being discussed between Clinton and Goldman Sachs?
    * What role did her husband have with supporting a known rapist on a certain Caribbean island?
    * What is the truth in the matters of oddly convenient "suicides" like Vince Foster?
    * What is the truth in the matters of Benghazi, given that they wanted the Ambassador dead?

    • John Podesta, Podesta Group and the Clinton Fund. Google that for some king of sleaze stuff.

      http://freebeacon.com/issues/p... [freebeacon.com]

    • Instead of bothering with UFO's, why not deal with things like:
      * What was being discussed between Clinton and Goldman Sachs?
      * What role did her husband have with supporting a known rapist on a certain Caribbean island?
      * What is the truth in the matters of oddly convenient "suicides" like Vince Foster?
      * What is the truth in the matters of Benghazi, given that they wanted the Ambassador dead?

      Adding to your list, I have a question: how is this not a conflict of interest?

      The campaign chair of someone running for president convinces the secretary of state to declassify documents in order to boost the campaign?

      How is this not a conflict of interest?

      Should the Secretary of State make declassification decisions based on the state of her campaign?

      Beyond conflict of interest, how is this not outright illegal?

    • they wanted the Ambassador dead

      Citation needed.

    • She obviously has no incentive to talk about things that will hurt her. Right now it's a balancing act. Anything she says will lose points with some group and win points with another. That's why the UFO thing is kind of brilliant, because it locks in the tin foil hat vote without really losing anything anywhere else.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • on why she's bothering with this silliness? I wonder if it's to inject a sense of hope for the future back into American politics. Americans are still blitheringly optimistic but at the same time a large portion of the electorate seems to have given up on the idea of progress. At best their conservative ("don't change _anything_") and at worst regressive ("Back to the good old days"... that never really exists... especially if you weren't white and male). Remember when space was a thing? When science was go
    • > on why she's bothering with this silliness?

      All the crazy people will vote for this sole reason. FWIW, Jimmy Carter said the same thing.

  • What a maniacally egotistical nation, that thinks it is so special that aliens would visit them rather than contact the majority of humanity, which resides in Asia, first.

    I gather that Clinton and friends have crunched the numbers a believe that there is enough votes amongst those on the fringes of reality to risk making a fool of herself?
  • by Megan Woods ( 2920951 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:50PM (#51871951)
    I think there are three basic options and a fourth most likely one.
    1. 1 We are the first technologically intelligent species.
    2. 2 We are the last technologically intelligent species.
    3. 3 The universe is so dam big that the probability for any technologically intelligent lifeforms to ever come into contact is near zero.
    4. 4 It is a cover story for military aviation R&D.

    I personally go with the last option.

    • by eyenot ( 102141 )

      Well, OK, joining you out on your four various limbs of one tree, I can offer some conversational points to each:

      1 "Species" in this sense could be broad. You could be talking about a species that has already been star-hopping for some time, and it would still be this same species here on Earth. If to allow for that we would need to lend some discredit to theories of evolution from apes to humans, we could accept that the current state of research in that area is kind of messy and fumbling. We could even in

  • by sethstorm ( 512897 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @06:53PM (#51871975) Homepage

    John Podesta, who was also a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and CEO of an organization implicated by the Panama Papers.

    UFO's are just a distraction compared to recent events.

    • by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @07:36PM (#51872187)

      MOST LIKELY, he noticed just like I did, that googling his name puts UFO ranked higher. So he is trying to influence his google ranking to have recent UFO related results attached to his name rather than Panama.

      I remember Bill Clinton's Chief of staff over a decade ago talking about how he looked into UFOs early into Bill's years in office and Bill told him to see if he could find anything. In the interview I remember him saying he found nothing but also felt like he was getting the run around by the system. This is either still a thing for him or it is a tactic being employed again.

  • I personally really, highly doubt that our government has anything revelatory or unprecedented to say about the fullest extent of their knowledge about visits by E.T.

    I'm not going to go all-out and say we've never been visited. Personally I've stuck most of my life with the ideal (while fully acknowledging it as idealistic) that until you know for sure one way or the other, most proposed limits to possible phenomena in the universe deserve a 50/50 consideration. That is, it's just as likely said phenomenon

  • Just as long as they come in through the front front door and not the ceiling or time portal. You know, legal, safe, and rare and all that...
  • Yeah, this PLANET might have already been visited by extra-terrestrial intelligences. But the odds are very, very slim.

    And even slimmer are the odds that we (as a species) were visited.

    And even slimmer still that our government has collected any information on.

    And even still slimmer that our government would manage to keep such a secret.

  • This is an entertaining hail mary to try and distract from the various investigations, emails, and fundraising transcripts etc. "We'll be transparent, we promise! The American people *deserve* to know about UFO's." The meeting where some intern came up with this idea had to be followed by "It's so crazy it might just work!"
  • Wrong again (Score:2, Insightful)

    by irving47 ( 73147 )

    We can't handle the truth. Our society is getting DUMBER, not smarter. We can't handle the thought of beings from beyond arriving. There would be cults worshipping them, cults demonizing them (this ALREADY happens in certain major religions, claiming UFO's are the work of Satan.) And suicides and suicide cults and people wanting to marry them within an hour of meeting them.

    • by eyenot ( 102141 )

      (honestly, it's not like a certain amount of suicide wouldn't help the various governments of the world)

    • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      I will only worship them if they have cool blue sex robots and spaceships that look totally wizard.

  • Why not release it all? "as spossible" just allows for restrictions. Even if we release everything up to 1996, that's still 20-year old tech. Ok, 1986, - year old tech... All the juicy alien stuff was super to happen before then.

  • They'll do anything to shift focus away from their lack of honest governance on things that actually matter.

  • I heard Buzz Aldrin (one of the few people to have walked on the moon) on DC news radio the other day talking about moon monoliths. I thought he was talking about Earth's moon, but some googling shows he's talking about a monolith on one of Mars' moons, if that's what he was referring to. He explicitly talked about off-world life forms - aliens - as well.

    So that's interesting - Hillary talking about extraterrestrial life, as well as Aldrin talking about it, around the same time.

    I do think there's extraterre

  • Can you imagine the wall Donald Trump would want built if he believed extra terrestrials were real? I'd kind of like to hear him explain how he would get them to pay for the construction costs.
    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Walls? We're going to need a ceiling as well.

    • by Livius ( 318358 )

      Donald Trump would want built if he believed extra terrestrials were real?

      Just ask yourself:

      Does Trump's hair resemble anything from this planet?

      • Donald Trump would want built if he believed extra terrestrials were real?

        Just ask yourself:

        Does Trump's hair resemble anything from this planet?

        Everyone knows that Trump's hair is one of his horcruxes. Once you introduce dark magic into the equation, who can really say what his hair piece really is (besides a horcrux, obviously)?

    • Can you imagine the wall Donald Trump would want built if he believed extra terrestrials were real?

      We'll have to tell Freeman Dyson that he isn't getting a sphere named after him after all.

      • Trump also promises to get the aliens to pay for the Dyson sphere. Just one problem: what are we going to do with that giant pile of xygrax skins?

  • Shut it down! [youtube.com]

  • Everything about UFOs was already released.

    It's a cheap way to sound like she believes in transparency when, of course, she doesn't.

  • by speedlaw ( 878924 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @09:18PM (#51872617) Homepage
    Vote for Hillary and learn the truth about UFOs ! Now, I have seen it all. Also, I don't trust her to actually tell me.
  • This is not exaggeration. John Podesta is literally (not figuratively) a registered lobbyist for Vladamir Putin's bank [battleswarmblog.com], as shown by the recently released Panama Papers:

    Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO is Tony Podesta, one of the best-connected Democratic machers in the country. He founded the firm in 1998 with his brother John, formerly chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, then counselor to President Barack Obama, Mr. Podesta is the very definition of a Democratic insider. Outsiders engage the Podestas and their well-connected lobbying firm to improve their image and get access to Democratic bigwigs.

    Which is exactly what Sberbank, Russia’s biggest financial institution, did this spring. As reported at the end of March, the Podesta Group registered with the U.S. Government as a lobbyist for Sberbank, as required by law, naming three Podesta Group staffers: Tony Podesta plus Stephen Rademaker and David Adams, the last two former assistant secretaries of state. It should be noted that Tony Podesta is a big-money bundler for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign while his brother John is the chairman of that campaign, the chief architect of her plans to take the White House this November.

    Sberbank (Savings Bank in Russian) engaged the Podesta Group to help its public image—leading Moscow financial institutions not exactly being known for their propriety and wholesomeness—and specifically to help lift some of the pain of sanctions placed on Russia in the aftermath of the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, which has caused real pain to the country’s hard-hit financial sector.

    It’s hardly surprising that Sberbank sought the help of Democratic insiders like the Podesta Group to aid them in this difficult hour, since they clearly understand how American politics work. The question is why the Podesta Group took Sberbank’s money. That financial institution isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows—it’s the biggest bank in Russia, and its reputation leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody acquainted with Russian finance was surprised that Sberbank wound up in the Panama Papers.

    Though Sberbank has its origins in the nineteenth century, it was functionally reborn after the Soviet collapse, and it the 1990s it grew to be the dominant bank in the country, today controlling nearly 30 percent of Russia’s aggregate banking assets and employing a quarter-million people. The majority stockholder in Sberbank is Russia’s Central Bank. In other words, Sberbank is functionally an arm of the Kremlin, although it’s ostensibly a private institution.

    And yes, he's Hillary Clinton's campaign manager. no conflict of interest there...

  • by pz ( 113803 ) on Friday April 08, 2016 @10:47PM (#51872949) Journal

    Is this stunt anything other than an attempt to distract the press and public from the damaging combination of Bill Clinton's recent ugly interaction with the African-American movement of the moment (which is a dig on the current crop of youngsters with their millisecond attention span and utter ignorance of history; while in office Bill Clinton was called America's first Black President, that's how close he was to the black vote), and the ties with dirty money that the Clintons have that are being revealed in the Panama Papers?

    I mean, seriously, UFOs? Is that anything other than a Hail Mary pass?

  • They fly, and we don't know what they are. Otherwise they'd be UOs or FOs or even just Os.

  • http://www.core-sound.com/jeck... [core-sound.com]
    (Disc microphone)

    I have no doubt at all hundreds of people can actually witness a real UFO from another world and nobody would care or believe it. It would drown under the noise of Venus, aircraft sightings, weather, flares, hoaxes and accounts of those not exactly operating on all thrusters.

    Most of the UFO stories Area 51 included are nonsense but there were always a few interesting jems..

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • UFOs exist and there are plenty of them - depending on your ability to identify flying objects. Is it flying? Yes? Can you identify it? No? Then it's the UFO. I served at several military airports and I've seen plenty.
    br>The declassification time for military aircraft is typically 10-20 years. There will obviously be a whole lot of UFOs flying around...

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