WEBVTT - Blink-182: Tom Was Right. Aliens Exist. 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:12.440 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.920 story about Blink one eighty two, which means it's also 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.040 a story about Dick jokes about running through the streets 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:24.320 of Los Angeles naked, and about simple, infectious, juvenile pop punk. 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.760 It's also a story about the truth about what the 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.720 government does and does not want us to talk about 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.800 or even to think about. It's about a plane crash, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.720 a cancer diagnosis, and about a snot nosed punk from 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.720 southern California who was expelled from high school but would 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:48.519 eventually find himself taking meetings with white house personnel, A 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.880 snot knows punk who in his band Blink one eighty 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:57.120 two made great music, unlike that music I played for 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.800 you at the top of the show that wasn't great 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.880 me music that was a preset loop for my melotron 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:10.880 called Hooskerdoo's books about UFOs MK one. I played you 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.680 that loop because I can't afford the rights to Blinding 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.200 Lights by the weekend. And why would I play you 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.480 that specific slice of eighties time machine cheese? Could I 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:26.840 afford it? Because that was the number one song in America. 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.160 On April twenty seventh, twenty twenty, and that was the 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.720 day that the Department of Defense did something it had 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:38.640 never done before, disclosed information to the public regarding the 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.920 likely existence of life from beyond this planet and or 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:49.880 this dimension. On this episode, Dick jokes government lies. Aliens 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:55.720 exist in Blink one eighty two. I'm Jake Brennan in 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:35.000 this this disgraceland. Aliens exist. But don't take my word 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.680 for it, or anybody's word for it for that matter, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:42.799 look at the evidence the federal government's actions. To be exact, 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.600 look at the front page of the New York Times 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.760 where it was reported in twenty twenty, the US intelligence 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:55.080 agencies had established a program called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon 0:02:55.320 --> 0:03:00.680 Task Force to quote standardize collection and reporting sightings of 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:07.600 unexplained aerial vehicles. On the Times website and across the Internet, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.360 you can find videos of these so called unexplained aerial 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:16.560 vehicles captured by naval pilots, videos of aircraft moving in 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:23.280 unearthly ways that defy physics, video footage the Times calls mystifying. 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.480 If you dig an inch deeper, you'll quickly learn about 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:32.240 the legitimacy of these videos. You'll find countless military personnel 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.480 from the last seventy five years, many highly decorated, many 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.880 who put their credibility on the line. Credibility they spent 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:45.240 their entire careers building, detailing the very real experiences with 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.360 similar logic, defying aircraft that will lead you to only 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:58.040 one possible explanation. Aliens exist, They're real. You know what 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.240 else is real? What the government does and does not 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.760 want us to think. Up until about seven years ago, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.560 it was very evident that the government did not want 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.360 us to think that aliens did indeed exist, or that 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.080 they were real. No, that type of thinking was wrong. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.320 It was wrong think, very very bad. That thinking was 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.000 for crackpots who spent a little too much time believing 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.400 the headlines they read in the supermarket checkout line. And 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.960 there was a time back in the twentieth century when 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.120 the government didn't want us thinking or speaking about much 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.960 more than God, country, and family. And this has all changed, 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.159 of course, the government doesn't care too much these days 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.720 about God, country, and family. But back in nineteen sixty six, 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.279 if you use the wrong type of language language, that 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.359 of course encouraged subversive thinking. If you demonstrated wrong think 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.920 by using the wrong language in public, you'd go to jail. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.839 Ask comedian Lenny Bruce, who was arrested for saying nine 0:04:54.880 --> 0:05:02.040 specific words ass balls, cocksucker, kunt, fuck, motherfucker, pisshit, and tits. Then, 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.599 six years later, in nineteen seventy two, comedian George Carlin 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.000 had this to say about it. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.039 Im poor taste, unseemly street talk, got her talk, locker 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:25.160 room language, barracks talk, body, naughty, saucy, raunchy, rude, crude, lude, less, civious, indecent, profane, obscene, 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:34.200 blue off cover, risque, suggestive, curson, cussin, swearing, And all 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.839 I could think of was ship is, fuck, huntcok, sucker, motherfucker, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.720 and kits. 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.440 That bit from Carlin's nineteen seventy two album Class Clown 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.960 was played on WBAI radio in New York. In nineteen 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.520 seventy three. A complaint was filed against the radio station 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.320 and the Federal Communications Commission. That SCC issued a declaration 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.880 backing the complaint, holding the radio station accountable. The complaint 0:05:59.920 --> 0:06:02.120 was filed in court, and it went all the way 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.120 to the Supreme Court, where it was found that, yes, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.360 under no circumstance does the government want you to say 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.960 the words ass balls, cocksucker, count, fuck, motherfucker, pits, shit 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.560 and tits on its airwaves. Count the snotty Southern California 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.280 pop punk band Blink one eighty two among the innumerable 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:27.080 countercultures of versus who didn't get the Supreme Court's memos 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:33.840 fuck count cook, sucker, motherfucker, tit Sparter's what separt count 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.760 top sudden mother pucker ti spark turns t buncher bar. 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.560 That's Blink one eighty two's live Staple Family Reunion, which 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.440 is essentially George Carlin's seven Words You Can Never Say 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.600 on television routine set to music. The Boys in Blank 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.120 added fart, turd and twat for good measure, and that 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.960 song was released as a promotional single in nineteen ninety nine. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.600 Now there's no telling whether or not those lyrics were 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.159 swimming through Blink one eighty two guitarist and co singer 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.080 songwriter Tom Delong's head back in nineteen ninety five while 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.000 he sat handcuffed in the back of a Jacksonville, Florida, 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.920 police cruiser, busted for wandering the streets of Jacksonville drunk 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.040 and carrying an open container while on the group's first 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.679 real tour, Tom was in for a long night in jail, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:29.320 a night where Tom's imagination would see him through. It 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.360 was always Tom's ability to dream that delivered him through 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.200 the tough times, through the monotony of a board suburban 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.200 teenage existence, through the bleakness of a grown up prescribed 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.520 adult future in a cubicle or on a construction site, 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.720 through his parents splitting up, through getting expelled from high school. 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.160 They could tell him there was no future, but they 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:56.320 couldn't make him believe it. The local library back in Powie, California, 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:02.440 gave his dreams wings. Books about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.800 Punk rock gave him the audacity he needed to question authority. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.200 Chin have you seen him, Charlie, don't serve California Uberalis. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.840 All of the subversiveness that was at the core of 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.440 the West Coast punk ethos that Tom DeLong raised himself 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.000 on made it very easy for him to call bullshit 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.880 on the official government narratives aimed at explaining away the 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:31.080 topics he obsessed over in his local library. The US 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.440 Air Force is Roswell report on the nineteen forty seven 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.880 New Mexico UFO crash and the report from the trumped 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.640 up warrant Commission on the assassination of John F. Kennedy Police. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.680 You ought to be a mindless automaton to accept these 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:50.360 explanations as anything more than what they obviously were lies 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.880 from a government hell bent on vending the public's perception 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:59.680 of the truth to its will. On that first Blank 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.400 tour back in nineteen ninety five, Tom's bandmates bassist and 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.360 fellow singer songwriter Mark Hoppis and original drummer Scott Rayner, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.199 no doubt, had no idea what to think as they 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.960 drove through Dallas's Daily Plaza, the site of President Kennedy's 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:19.160 assassination thirty two years earlier, and listened to their bandmate 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.480 Tom go on and on over his theory that Kennedy 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.000 was shot because he had learned the truth about aliens, 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.160 and that JFK was going to disclose to the American 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:33.760 public evidence proving aliens exist. In nineteen ninety five, this 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.400 type of thinking seemed hysterical, but Tom DeLong this type 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:44.600 of thinking was essential after bouncing from that Jacksonville jail 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.040 with a slap on the wrist after taking in a 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.160 rocket launch in nearby Cape Canaveral, after wrapping a successful 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.839 first tour in ninety five, after breaking through on the 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.240 nineteen ninety six Warped Tour and capitalizing on a major 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.959 label bidding war, after signing with MCA Records and releasing 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.040 an album that went gold, after parting ways with their 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.760 original drummer, replacing him with the percussive juggernaut that is 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.080 Travis Barker, after casting Alissa Freakin Mulano in their music 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.480 video and downgrading America's collective maturity level a couple notches 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.000 with songs about shitting your pants and getting laid. This 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:25.640 type of thinking, this hysterical wrong think, was absolutely driving 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.760 Tom DeLong to write the lyrics for Blink one eighty 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:34.440 two song Aliens Exist, a song that nearly everyone laughed 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.240 off as just another example of Blink one eighty two 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.440 staggering level of immaturity, a song with a sentiment that 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.040 would one day compel the United States government to take 0:10:45.120 --> 0:11:14.680 Tom DeLong as nothing less than dead serious. The United 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.320 States government lets you get away with a lot of things. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.280 For instance, you can wake up one morning and walk 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.440 into your recording studio and rant into the microphone about 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.680 what a bunch of duplicitous controlling autocrats. The government is 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.239 made up of, and depending on the size of your microphone, 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:31.040 you can pretty much get away with it as I 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.960 am right now. What you can't get away with is 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:39.679 not forking over to the government. It's peace. It's take Hey. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.400 If you don't pay the government taxes demands, a massive 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.040 percentage of which is exorbitant and unnecessary, the government will 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.760 apply a vig to the principal amount you owe, which 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.080 will in turn make your debt nearly impossible to pay off. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.880 Does this sound familiar to you. It sounds to me 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.480 like the mafia. It's the same tax gangsters have used 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:06.040 for years in their shylock businesses. Perry Farrell, of Jane's Addiction, 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.920 once said, quote the gang and the government are no different, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.760 and he wasn't wrong, not in principle. The federal government is, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:19.200 of course, more evolved and more sophisticated than the mafia. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.559 If say you're a porn star and U ooh, I 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.640 don't know three hundred thousand dollars in back taxes, now 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:27.560 you know full well as we all do, that you 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.480 should have paid those taxes. Making tax payments is not 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.520 a new concept, but it's easy to see how entertainers, athletes, 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.720 and those in the workforce who aren't accustomed to coming 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:43.240 into massive cash windfalls fail to make payments. You get 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.800 paid six hundred grand for a couple of skin flicks, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.400 and all of a sudden you have to fork over 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.640 fifty percent to the Feds. Now for a porn star, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.720 that's hard to swallow. Sorry, I couldn't resist. This is, 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.960 after all, still a Blank one eighty two episode, even 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:58.720 though I'm talking about tax rates at the moment, But 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.800 I promise this is going somewhere relevant. So anyway, you're 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.080 a porn star who owes three hundred thousand dollars in taxes. 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.600 Now the government is going to act like the mafia 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.880 and blow up your place of business with a pipe bomb, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.480 but it is going to send agents to your house 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.959 and those fancy windbreakers at an ungodly early morning hour, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.360 raid your place, take you away in handcuffs, and throw 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.720 you in a federal prison. And that's what happened to 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.120 Janine Linda Malder in two thousand and nine. And despite 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.680 the fact that she'd start in a Blink one eighty 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.720 two video ten years earlier, there was nothing she could 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.480 do about it. Janine was going to jail, because, as 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.520 Tom DeLong would soon find out, the federal government does 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:46.440 not fuck around. But back in nineteen ninety nine, Janine 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.960 had no way of knowing that she had other things 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.800 on her mind, like the three skinny naked punk rock 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.680 dudes oggling her on a Los Angeles street corner while 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.720 the cameras rolled. This was a different camera crew than 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.440 Janine was used to. This wasn't a valley production. This 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.120 was more Hollywood. The boys in the band were nice 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:11.199 enough and funny, despite being wickedly horny. Janine saw real 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.400 quick that the boys in Blank were about to learn 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.280 the hard truth about a skin flick production, and that's 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.720 that being naked in front of scores of people and 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.600 broad daylight. It might be funny or sexy when the 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.520 finished ed it hits screens, but while you're making the thing, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.120 being naked on set sucks. 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:28.160 Sure. 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.800 You look all daring and cool running through the streets 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.120 of Hollywood filming your new video for your incredibly catchy 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.360 song What's My Age Again? But then once they call cut, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.200 you're just a schmuck and a skin colored speedo and 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.720 nothing else on standing on the side of West Third 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.880 in La while dudes in jeep Cherokees drive by and 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.440 give you the finger and launch homophobic slurs at you. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.960 Janine of course thought it was hysterical, so did the 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.680 rest of America. The video that is not the homophobic cutdowns, 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.080 What's My Age Again? Was a massive hit both as 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.080 a video and a single, propelling Blink one eighty two's 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.240 newest album at the time, Enema of the State, to 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:14.280 sell fifteen million copies, probably more by now. Anema of 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.560 the State also featured the song Aliens Exist, with the 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.520 lyrics Hey Mom, there's something in the back room. Hope 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.120 it's not the creature from above. You used to read 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.160 me stories as if my dreams were boring. We all 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.880 know conspiracies are dumb, and what if people knew that 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.640 these were real? I'd leave my closet door open all night. 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.680 I know what the CIA would say. What you hear 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.840 is all hearsay. I wish someone would tell me what 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.280 was right. Tom DeLong, who wrote those lyrics, though, was 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.600 wrong about the CIA. Someone was in fact about to 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:56.760 tell them what exactly was right. Enema of the State 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.200 turned Blink one eighty two into a household name, their 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.880 next album, featuring another trademark juvenile Blink title Take Off 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.680 Your Pants and Jacket was also a hit. They followed 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.640 that up with a self titled full length in two 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.960 thousand and three. After that effort, the band entered a 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.800 phase that his treacherous ground for any group of self 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:22.040 respecting rock stars. Adulthood. Life changed for Tom DeLong, Mark Hoppis, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.960 and Travis Barker. In two thousand and five, Tom quit 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.640 the band to be with his family. In two thousand 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.600 and eight, Travis Barker was in a private plane crash 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.280 in which six people died. He was severely injured, along 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.680 with his friend, a musical collaborator in his group, Travis 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:43.880 Djam Adam Goldstein aka DJAM, who was driven back into 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.720 addiction after the crash from the trauma of it all. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.720 He overdosed and died in two thousand and nine, and 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.680 the extremely traumatic event nearly drove Travis to suicide, but 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:59.800 ultimately he recovered both physically and mentally from the horrible experience. 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.560 In two thousand and nine, Tom DeLong rejoined Blink one 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.320 eighty two and the group embarked on another chapter, touring 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:12.359 and releasing the full length album Neighborhoods. The album was 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.320 well received critically. It was a progression from their more 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.520 youthful efforts, but was that necessarily a good thing. In 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.840 the end, the album failed to set the world on fire. Then, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.760 throughout the early odts, and after reuniting with Blink one 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.080 eighty two, Tom DeLong recorded and toured with the side 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:34.720 project known as Angels and Airwaves. And then in twenty fourteen, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:42.399 Tom DeLong took a trip out to the desert area 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:47.600 fifty one Death Valley. Tom awoke in his tent. The 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.920 voices outside in the desert were too many to count, 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.160 too many to comprehend, and they woke them up. They 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.119 weren't human. His fellow campers, one of whom was a 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:05.800 prominent Fallists, slept soundly in their tents. These sounds were unearthly, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:12.600 but still strangely familiar, murmuring, whispering. Tom could hardly understand them. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.280 He could scarcely hold on to his awareness of them 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.439 over the sound of his steadily beating heart, which was 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:24.520 now pounding. Those voices, whatever they were, wherever they came from, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:29.800 were there right there the edge of perception. But the 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:34.119 words themselves were impossible to comprehend. And whatever message was 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:40.560 meant to be translated fell short. Tom couldn't grasp it. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.359 It floated away that he was awake now, but he 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:49.520 wasn't conscious, so he couldn't possibly understand the beings, whether 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:54.480 they were extraterrestrials from worlds far away or ultraterrestrials from 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.520 uncharted dimensions here in this world, whether they were angels 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.320 or demons, or whatever they were. Tom was told they 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:07.840 communicate through consciousness. They speak to us through high consciousness. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:13.040 They compel us in those moments when our minds disassociate 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.200 from this world, when we unplug, when we simply are, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:22.200 when we dream, when we pray, perhaps when we ingest psychedelics. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.639 However we get there, it's that point when all of 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:30.920 our thoughts, actions and emotions are objectifiable, when we separate 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:36.159 from the subjective and become conscious. That's when they're whispers, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:41.560 their murmurs manifest into messages to permeate our own thoughts. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.439 Perhaps even their messages present to us as our own thoughts. 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.840 Perhaps our ideas are on some quantum level, not ideas 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.680 at all, but rather the aliens themselves being born out 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.879 of our own consciousness, pulling us into a higher strangeness 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.240 and moving us closer toward a great later universal understanding. 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.280 But alone, awake and afraid in the tent in the 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:13.960 middle of the desert, consciousness is unattainable, and therefore so 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:19.120 is extra or ultra terrestrial communication. So Tom was out, 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.040 but Tom was also in. Whatever he did or did 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.080 not understand out in the desert on that night in 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.359 twenty fourteen was enough to compel him to dedicate his 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.800 life to learning more and demanding that the powers that 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.600 be share with the American public what they did or 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.879 did not know. And Tom DeLong knew enough to know 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.920 that the US government knew a lot more about beings 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.959 from other worlds and or other dimensions than they were 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:50.159 letting on. In short order in twenty fifteen, Tom DeLong 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.960 would quit Blink one eighty two, one of the planet's 0:20:53.240 --> 0:21:01.400 biggest rock and roll bands, to go chase UFOs. We'll 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:09.479 be right back after this. We're we're where. Blink one 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:14.159 eighty two's Tom DeLong describes alien encounter, says authority's tapped 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.320 his phone. Tom DeLong just proved he's gone completely insane 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.879 during alien ram. I'm not going to say Tom DeLong 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.760 is batshit crazy, but Tom DeLong wants you to stop 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:30.679 calling him crazy for researching aliens. And that's a smattering 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.240 of what the media had to say about Tom Delong's 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.560 efforts to investigate the legitimacy of alien existence after departing 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.240 Blink one eighty two. The Rock and Roll Press was 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:46.280 predictably the most snarky and also the most disingenuous. Consequence 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.800 of Sound elaborated on their claims that Tom had gone crazy, 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.080 adding this to their cheap hip piece on him. Quote 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.560 former Blink one eighty two member implies he met with 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.600 Bill Clinton to discuss the threat of UFOs unquote, when 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.320 in fact Tom did not imply he was meeting with 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:06.240 Bill Clinton. That was a presumption the so called journalist 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.040 from Consequence cooked up entirely on his own to make 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.000 Tom look crazy, based on a photo of a meeting 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.840 Tom posted to Instagram and then deleted. So is now 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.160 a good time to mention the fact that the CIA 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.080 has had journalists planted in the media since the nineteen 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.840 sixties as part of their secret Operation Mockingbird to help 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.760 shape various narratives to fit the government's view of what 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:32.400 it wants the public to think. Perhaps, but perhaps that's 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.960 a digression that'll derail this story. Hey, maybe you guys 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:37.880 can go ahead and look that one up for yourself though, 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:43.800 Operation Mockingbird. Back to Tom DeLong. Remember earlier when I 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:48.479 said the government doesn't fuck around, Here's what I meant. 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:53.240 The stakes for the meeting couldn't have been higher. Tom 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.200 used the mix of his celebrity and astute politic he 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.840 to set it up himself in a federal government aerospace. 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.439 It is unconfirmed, but it is widely believed that the 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:08.040 contractor was Lockheed Martin and their special division Skunk Works. 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:14.800 The meeting was heavily secured, four layers of security, armed guards, 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:18.280 and white noise pumping through speakers to scramble any listening 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:23.639 devices inside the dark, windowless room. Tom was prepared. He 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:25.720 had the audience he had been building toward for some 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.000 time now. He had a message to deliver. He had 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:33.680 a reaction to elicit. This was, in some really strange way, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:38.400 no different than being on stage. This was a performance 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.720 like any other. Tom explained that the work done by 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.480 the government, the military, and their contractors on UFO phenomena 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.840 was worthy of disclosure, and that the proper way to 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:53.240 disclose this information to the youth was through culture, through books, 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.680 through comics, through records, through films. Tom wanted to combine 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.960 his celebrity and authentic connection to the un with the 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.080 vast knowledge of the UFO phenomena he had attained over 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:08.639 the years. One of the contractors Scoffed essentially told Tom 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:11.639 he was a conspiracy theorist wasting his time, and he 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:16.120 abruptly left the room. The other contractors followed him, all 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:20.600 but one, all but the lead contractor, who sat back 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:24.760 and listened to more of Tom's pitch. The government and 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:28.600 its contractors were doing great work in this area. Why 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:30.920 did it all have to be so secret that there 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:33.159 was so much evidence that it was obvious what the 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:36.840 truth was. Eventually that truth was going to come out. 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.800 And then what kind of effect would the shocking truth 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:43.240 about alien existence here on earth have on the American public? 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:48.520 Could anything be more disruptive to humanity, more life altering 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.680 than the realization that we are not alone in the universe? 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:57.080 What would this knowledge do to humanity? It would, no 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:00.000 doubt have a life altering influence on our core beliefs 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:03.240 as a species, on our thoughts about our place and 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:07.359 point in this world, about God, about the devil about 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:11.480 good and evil. It was knowledge, secret knowledge that had 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:17.000 to be handled and disclosed very cautiously. When Tom finished, 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:21.760 the government contractor, to Tom's amazement, agreed that slow disclosure 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:26.000 of the UFO phenomenon via culture, rather than exclusively through 0:25:26.040 --> 0:25:29.879 traditional media, could responsibly bring the public around to the 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:36.480 mind bending notion that yes, aliens exist. This is the 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:38.440 part of the story where you call bullshit and I 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:41.560 don't blame you. Why would a federal defense contractor or 0:25:41.680 --> 0:25:44.639 anyone connected with the federal government in trust a foul 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:47.400 mouth punk rocker from a band with a nonsensical name 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:51.879 like Blank one eighty two with disclosing humanity altering information 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:56.639 to the public. Well, because this is what the government 0:25:56.640 --> 0:26:01.679 has always done. Used cutouts from culture, individuals from the 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:06.960 world of arts and entertainment, actors, musicians, artists. The government 0:26:06.960 --> 0:26:09.520 has relied on these individuals of influence for the better 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:11.879 part of a century to get its message to the 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:18.199 American people. In nineteen fifty four, the CIA secretly funded 0:26:18.200 --> 0:26:21.280 the film adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm and its 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:23.800 efforts to win hearts and minds during the Cold War 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:27.480 against Communist Russia. To further its winning efforts in the 0:26:27.480 --> 0:26:31.119 Cold War, the CIA secretly bolstered the careers of abstract 0:26:31.160 --> 0:26:35.600 expressionist painters Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. These artists were 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:38.560 unaware of the strings the CIA pulled on their behalf 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:41.919 to promote them, but the government's message was sent, and 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:46.560 it was this in America, our artists thrived. In the 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:51.439 Soviet Union, artists are thrown in prison. As recently as 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:55.920 twenty thirteen, the CIA demanded and received script approval for 0:26:56.000 --> 0:26:59.760 the television series The Americans. You know all that long 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.000 expositional dialogue blathering on and on about un regulations in 0:27:04.000 --> 0:27:07.240 the movie Iron Man. Guests who had a production agreement 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:10.040 in their dirty hands all over the script for that film. 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:16.359 The CIA, so the federal contractor agreed to help Tom 0:27:16.800 --> 0:27:20.520 and connected him with an unnamed general who confirmed Tom's 0:27:20.520 --> 0:27:24.119 belief in UFO phenomena and agreed that the time was 0:27:24.200 --> 0:27:29.240 now for disclosure. Perhaps the general's thoughts around timing had 0:27:29.280 --> 0:27:32.440 something to do with the hundreds of unidentified aerial phenomena 0:27:32.520 --> 0:27:36.120 being captured on video by the US military personnel. At 0:27:36.160 --> 0:27:41.120