"JD Vance recently made waves when he said that he believes that UFOs are demons. Most people have never heard of such a thing, but the article struck a memory chord with me."
J.D.'s been huffing paint with Rod Dreher for a bit longer than is good for himself.[1] Looks like weirdness[2] is still on the menu, boys!
The first chapter of Ezekiel[1, KJV] is a lot of fun for folks studying this topic:
1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,
3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.
24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
To add more grist to the mill, a 2021 sighting BY an American Airlines pilot[1] (which I think you've written about?), occurred directly over my little brother's place in New Mexico. He wasn't around to see anything himself, but I thought that that the coincidence was a bit funny / uncanny.
Once, I saw a stationary strange beam in the sky in that area in high school (something like a ginormous laser, we pulled over to gawk at it), but nothing I'd describe remotely like a UFO. We were also not too far from some federal national labs (LANL and Sandia) and nearby Air Force bases - Cannon AFB in Clovis being the nearest (and they used our sparsely-populated region as airspace for all kinds of training and testing).
The whole debate over what UFOs/aliens are is an interesting case study in human psychology in that we try to explain the unknown in a way that conforms to prevailing culture. In pagan Europe, we had fairies, leprechauns, and trolls. With Christianity, these transformed into angels and demons. Now in the space age, we have UFOs/aliens. Our hopes/fears and how we explain them tells us a lot about ourselves at any given point in time.
I would be interested in knowing more about Trump's evil app but when I click on the Mashable link, it takes me to a book club. Do you suppose the devilish Trump is messing with your posts?
"X user @Thereallo1026 went so far as decompiling the White House app and found that it's sharing the exact location data of its users every 4.5 minutes and sending that information to a third-party server."
"The third-party, OneSignal, is a company that provides push notification services. Location data is typically used by OneSignal to push notifications to users for location-based campaigns. While many companies use OneSignal's services, it is particularly concerning for the U.S. government to collect this data through an app that encourages users to report people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)."[1]
I'm going to take an uncharacteristic position and defend the Trump White House here and chalk this up to more stupidity and laziness than malice. I develop iOS and Android apps that use these location and notification features (including writing an open-source locally-hosted OneSignal replacement[2]) and the developers screwed up by requesting background permissions (on behalf of OneSignal) when they should have thought that through a bit more.
The reason I chalk this up to stupidity instead of malice, is that DOGE fired the technologists in the US gov’t who could helped avoid this mistake[3] and replaced them with a bunch of Dunning–Kruger-afflicted AI vibe coders[4] who probably let the Codex or Claude AIs build most of the app for them, without constraining the tools to the very guidelines set by the US gov’t itself[5].
If the gov’t were *really* interested in tracking everyone’s location, waiting for people to install an app is a poor way to do that, given that they can (and do) purchase better location data from the cell phone carriers and data brokers themselves.[6]
Also, there’s an inconsistency given the permission manifest from the @DiligentDenizen tweet and claims made by @Thereallo1026. The screenshot shared by @Thereallo1026 are code constants – NOT actual code that would send data to a third-party server. (That code would involve LocationListeners and a background data service / job worker, which isn't present in the constants.) The permission manifest also DOES NOT include the required background permission to do that (“access location in the background”).
I can’t speak to the security issues around the YouTube embeds, but that’s additional evidence that this was probably AI vibe-coded, since there isn’t even a bad reason to load YouTube embeds that way.
"JD Vance recently made waves when he said that he believes that UFOs are demons. Most people have never heard of such a thing, but the article struck a memory chord with me."
J.D.'s been huffing paint with Rod Dreher for a bit longer than is good for himself.[1] Looks like weirdness[2] is still on the menu, boys!
[1] https://x.com/roddreher/status/2003644053129408514
[2] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/rod-dreher-blog-weird-american-conservative / https://archive.is/EMGgp
The first chapter of Ezekiel[1, KJV] is a lot of fun for folks studying this topic:
1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,
3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.
24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
[1] https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Ezekiel-Chapter-1/
To add more grist to the mill, a 2021 sighting BY an American Airlines pilot[1] (which I think you've written about?), occurred directly over my little brother's place in New Mexico. He wasn't around to see anything himself, but I thought that that the coincidence was a bit funny / uncanny.
Once, I saw a stationary strange beam in the sky in that area in high school (something like a ginormous laser, we pulled over to gawk at it), but nothing I'd describe remotely like a UFO. We were also not too far from some federal national labs (LANL and Sandia) and nearby Air Force bases - Cannon AFB in Clovis being the nearest (and they used our sparsely-populated region as airspace for all kinds of training and testing).
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-american-airlines-pilot-new-mexico-long-cylindrical-object/
The whole debate over what UFOs/aliens are is an interesting case study in human psychology in that we try to explain the unknown in a way that conforms to prevailing culture. In pagan Europe, we had fairies, leprechauns, and trolls. With Christianity, these transformed into angels and demons. Now in the space age, we have UFOs/aliens. Our hopes/fears and how we explain them tells us a lot about ourselves at any given point in time.
Great read 🤩
I would be interested in knowing more about Trump's evil app but when I click on the Mashable link, it takes me to a book club. Do you suppose the devilish Trump is messing with your posts?
It looks like I pasted the wrong link there. I've got it corrected, but at no extra charge, I'll post it here too.
https://mashable.com/article/trump-new-white-house-app-security-privacy-nightmare
Thanks. I'm already averse to most cellphone apps. This one doesn't interest me.
Here are some more details:
"X user @Thereallo1026 went so far as decompiling the White House app and found that it's sharing the exact location data of its users every 4.5 minutes and sending that information to a third-party server."
"The third-party, OneSignal, is a company that provides push notification services. Location data is typically used by OneSignal to push notifications to users for location-based campaigns. While many companies use OneSignal's services, it is particularly concerning for the U.S. government to collect this data through an app that encourages users to report people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)."[1]
I'm going to take an uncharacteristic position and defend the Trump White House here and chalk this up to more stupidity and laziness than malice. I develop iOS and Android apps that use these location and notification features (including writing an open-source locally-hosted OneSignal replacement[2]) and the developers screwed up by requesting background permissions (on behalf of OneSignal) when they should have thought that through a bit more.
The reason I chalk this up to stupidity instead of malice, is that DOGE fired the technologists in the US gov’t who could helped avoid this mistake[3] and replaced them with a bunch of Dunning–Kruger-afflicted AI vibe coders[4] who probably let the Codex or Claude AIs build most of the app for them, without constraining the tools to the very guidelines set by the US gov’t itself[5].
If the gov’t were *really* interested in tracking everyone’s location, waiting for people to install an app is a poor way to do that, given that they can (and do) purchase better location data from the cell phone carriers and data brokers themselves.[6]
[1] https://mashable.com/article/trump-new-white-house-app-security-privacy-nightmare
[2] https://github.com/audacious-software/Simple-Messaging-Push-Notifications
[3] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/05/gsa-shutting-down-18f-was-retaliation-by-doge-former-staff-claim-in-appeal-for-their-jobs-back/
[4] https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
[5] https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/mobile-health-app-developers-ftc-best-practices
[6] https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5752369/ice-surveillance-data-brokers-congress-anthropic
Also, there’s an inconsistency given the permission manifest from the @DiligentDenizen tweet and claims made by @Thereallo1026. The screenshot shared by @Thereallo1026 are code constants – NOT actual code that would send data to a third-party server. (That code would involve LocationListeners and a background data service / job worker, which isn't present in the constants.) The permission manifest also DOES NOT include the required background permission to do that (“access location in the background”).
I can’t speak to the security issues around the YouTube embeds, but that’s additional evidence that this was probably AI vibe-coded, since there isn’t even a bad reason to load YouTube embeds that way.
Thanks.
Always struck me as strange that UFO footage boomed during the age of VHS and seriously fell off once we all had phones in our pockets.