(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Where kids these days have their groomer-lit like Lawn Boy and Gender Queer, I had the 001.9’s—the Dewey Decimal designation for unexplained phenomena.
Perhaps nothing was as great a harbinger of my future adult self than my fascination with the occult and paranormal—although as I’ve noted in the past, the shroud has now been lifted over many of those unexplained mysteries; and normal, everyday life, paradoxically, seems far more weird and creepy.
It turns out, for example, that UFOs may be real after all, and that nobody cares.
But the bigger conspiracy is whether the Pentagon has been covering them up for 70 or so years, only so it can roll them out at the right time as a sort of PR gimmick to distract from its own cratering public approval amid scandal after scandal.
Likewise, Mexico appeared to offer proof last week that ancient aliens were real—and looked like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The female one looks familiar too https://t.co/NUqdcH5xmx pic.twitter.com/ZdCy7qnKY2
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. & Ally (@HollyBriden) September 13, 2023
The biggest mystery in this meme-worthy moment—which struck many as an obvious hoax—was WTF was going on and how did it reach the level of newsworthiness that it did.
Was this some sort of marketing gimmick to boost the flagging box-office figures of the latest Indiana Jones installment?
At any rate, the alien news got overshadowed by a flurry of more serious stories, including the launch of an impeachment probe against President Joe Biden and the indictment of his son Hunter on felony gun charges.
Yet, even then, both appeared to be largely symbolic measures, while the bigger story was that the Washington Post‘s Operation Mockingbird stool pigeon, David Ignatius, had given the go-ahead for leftist media to hate on Joe Biden—which they did.
CNN just spent an entire segment documenting how Joe Biden is a pathological liar:
Witnessed a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh in 2022 – FALSE
Grandfather died just days before his own birth at the same hospital – FALSE
Conversation with Amtrak conductor (who was already dead) -… pic.twitter.com/NWSPQUR6RW
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 14, 2023
THE LAST CHILDHOOD MYSTERY
Some of the great mysteries of my childhood, I have personally tried to debunk. I’ve been on ghost tours in supposedly haunted places like Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans but seen nothing special—although they are a fun way of learning the local lore.
And, at the risk of disappointing my Fox News’s newest leading man, Tyrus, who has been on this case of late, I can confirm firsthand that what lies beneath Loch Ness is a gigantic tourist trap.
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However, my visit there in 2002 did make for a lovely boat ride and a delightful day trip from Edinburgh up through the beautiful Scottish highlands that even included a stopover at a scotch distillery and a tour of the ruins of Urquhart Castle.
Only one mystery that I can recall has yet to be fully explained: the Bermuda Triangle.
The area in the Atlantic Ocean triangulating from Miami to Bermuda to Puerto Rico is known to have been the vanishing point of untold vessels. With reports first dating to the mid-19th century, at least 50 ships and 20 airplanes have disappeared in the span of roughly 500,000 square-miles (about twice the size of Texas), according to Britannica.
The alluring thing about the Bermuda Triangle is that the theories range from the mythical, such as speculation that the area could be home to the lost city/continent of Atlantis; to more science-fiction-related talk of intergalactic or multidimensional vortexes; to the more historical discussions of strategic interceptions by pirates and Nazi U-boats; and even the banal, yet scientifically supported, possibility of “oceanic flatulence,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The mystery offers a sort of mix-and-match choose-your-own-adventure for budding conspiracy theorists to let their imaginations run wild.
Then again, maybe, as with other recently debunked and demystified supernatural events, there is an even more sinister truth underlying the myth—one that could link it to something more like a government cover-up.
NOT SO STEALTHY
The weekend disappearance of an F-35 stealth fighter jet near the South Carolina coast reignited speculation for some that its disappearance might be connected with the Chinese spy balloon that spent weeks traversing the entire span of the United States in early February, hovering over sensitive military installations in the process, before getting shot down—also over the South Carolina coast.
We’re working with @MCASBeaufortSC to locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap this afternoon. The pilot ejected safely. If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600.
— Joint Base Charleston (@TeamCharleston) September 17, 2023
Although the close geographic proximity of the two events may seem an odd coincidence, both are connected to the Air Force’s Joint Base Charleston, so it may not be entirely unusual.
However, as Newsmax’s Carl Higbie pointed out, there is a long history that also ties Chinese espionage to the F-35 project specifically.
Following reports that the plane’s pilot had, for unknown reasons, safely ejected over North Charleston, rumors began to spread that the plane might have been testing new artificial-intelligence-based programs that would enable the military to eliminate the risk of human casualties in warfare and other operations.
The AI rumors, in turn, fueled suggestions that China may have hacked the system controls.
Considering what little public information the public received regarding how much of the spy balloon the government had succeeded in recovering, it may be possible that somewhere off the coast of Myrtle Beach, Chinese equipment is continuing to collect and transmit information—or potentially to disrupt GPS frequencies, leaving even America’s $80 million stealth fighters susceptible.
As of Monday night, the Air Force reported that it had discovered an inland debris field in the low-country marshlands of Williamsburg County and had cordoned off the area while recovery was underway.
Personnel from Joint Base Charleston and @MCASBeaufortSC, in close coordination with local authorities, have located a debris field in Williamsburg County. The debris was discovered two hours northeast of JB Charleston.
— Joint Base Charleston (@TeamCharleston) September 18, 2023
Yet, given this perfect storm of suspicious circumstances, some continued to have their doubts, speculating that the AI-controlled jet may have instead made its way into the hands of an enemy—or perhaps an ally, raising even more questions about the government’s need to concoct such a cover story.
Have you guys checked Ukraine? pic.twitter.com/2t3mgjib2d
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) September 18, 2023
Physically speaking, the triangulation between Joint Base Charleston, Williamsburg County and the coast of Myrtle Beach is a much smaller area, of course, than the Bermuda Triangle.
But in another sense it is just as big, considering how much more difficult it is in this day and age to encounter unexplained phenomenon like a vanishing spy plane.
Given the informational vortex that goes with the Biden administration’s paranoid—and vain—attempt to control public opinion, the theories may be limitless as to what really happened.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
