TGR 03.04.19. The $21 Trillion Question: UFOs, Confusion, or Corruption?

This week on The Gralien Report, reports of “mystery booms” have been filing in this week, following a number of reports of earth-shaking crashes in the greater Raliegh area of North Carolina. We also touch on a report about two California sisters found alive after spending two nights alone in the wilderness, an “extinct” leopard that locals continue to say they’ve seen in Taiwan after it vanished 30 years ago, and similar remarkable discoveries from within the animal kingdom. Also, a new study suggests that animals get bigger as they evolve, both on land and in the sea; how large will our descendants end up being in the distant future?

Then in the second hour, Harry Reid is back in the news making the case for the future study of UFOs and related defense applications, after a recent interview by George Knapp. While aspects of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program remain mysterious, its existence is well known; however, when it comes to the kinds of things going on in government that aren’t publicly disclosed, there’s an old expression which advises the best way to get to the bottom of things is to “follow the money.” Hence, we turn our attention to a controversial two-part column published in Forbes recently, which argues that nearly $21 trillion over a period of 17 years cannot be accounted for from defense spending and other areas in U.S. government.

In January, DoD Comptroller David Norquist argued that this can be accounted for by “changes in the valuation of property and equipment due to depreciation, base closures, equipment becoming obsolete,” and other factors. Mick West, respectful skeptic and operator of Metabunk.org, argues that Norquist’s breakdown is accurate, while conceding that “Nobody is saying that the defense department does not waste money. It very obviously does. Hundreds of millions, possibly even billions of dollars are wasted through inefficiencies, incompetence, and corruption.” In contrast with this, the authors of the recent Forbes piece say there may be more at work here… we explore all of these possibilities and delve into their tangent relationships to the government’s study of UFOs on this edition of the podcast.