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The Travis Taylor Saga Grows Stranger and Stupider

6/30/2022

14 Comments

 
​This week, to distract from the January 6 Commission hearings, Fox News devoted multiple segments to UFOs, even sending Tucker Carlson to Brazil, where he discussed the bizarre recent Brazilian UFO hearings, which included accounts of alien abductions and space brothers from Saturn. Avi Loeb continued his anti-humanist campaign by openly lusting for artificial intelligence to rule over and “save” inferior, unworthy humanity. And the strange saga of Travis Taylor only became stranger this week with news from the Pentagon that the Ancient Aliens and Skinwalker Ranch star was indeed a part of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, but that Taylor had exaggerated his job title and inflated his role. 
​In an interview last week with George Knapp, Taylor claimed to have served as the UAPTF’s “chief scientist,” but Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough told a number of reporters that Taylor never formally held the job title of “chief scientist.” Instead, he was an employee of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command until 2021, a period overlapping his other job as the star Prometheus Entertainment’s The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, airing on the History Channel, and guest speculator on sister shows Ancient Aliens and Curse of Oak Island. SMDC loaned Taylor to the UAPTF, whose leader, John Stratton, “informally referred to Dr. Taylor as his chief scientist as efforts to assemble a larger team were underway,” according to Gough. His UAPTF position was not, she said, a full-time job.
 
Gough told The Black Vault’s John Greenewald that Taylor’s job involved providing technical advice and did not involve intelligence analysis. Therefore, despite Taylor’s claim that the military “disregarded” the UAP Task Force’s work in order to conclude that several UFO sightings were drones, the Pentagon stands behind the conclusions offered to Congress in a recent hearing.

Taylor responded to the news in an email sent to hundreds of people on a mailing list, including me, by claiming without evidence that an unnamed entity is funding skeptical reports about paranormal UFO research. “The one thing I note is that these guys are getting paid to write these pieces,” Taylor wrote. “Who is behind the funding?” (Answer: No one. Reputable magazines assign articles based on their interests and needs. No third party has ever paid me to write any UFO article or post for a magazine or website.)
 
Taylor has also made a number of bizarre recent proclamations increasingly divorced from reality, including claiming that a Native American ghost is haunting him and speculating that an ancient spaceship is buried under Skinwalker Ranch capable of traveling faster than light.
 
Gough indicated that Taylor’s efforts generated some controversy within the Pentagon. Gough told reporters that the Pentagon began a process to “de-conflict” Taylor due to his “outside activities.” “In early 2021, following consultations with the UAPTF, SMDC worked to clarify and de-conflict assigned tasks, responsibilities, and outside activities to balance mission priorities,” Gough said. Whether that was because he is a lunatic who makes bizarre claims on TV about parallel universes, faster-than-light travel, ancient spaceships, and astrological star maps, or whether it had to do with something more bureaucratic, it isn’t easy to say because the Pentagon does not comment on individual personnel. But it certainly sounds like someone found it a conflict of interest for Taylor to be a Pentagon employee tasked with analyzing UFO reports and also a reality TV star investigating some of those same UFO reports for entertainment.
 
“I find it very difficult to believe,” SETI’s Seth Shostak told Keith Kloor in Science magazine about Taylor’s improbable position.
 
While the Pentagon began to “de-conflict” Taylor in 2021, he only left government service two months ago, when he immediately joined Radiance, a defense contractor, telling George Knapp in a May interview that he did so in order to continue to the work—paranormal and otherwise—that he had started at UAPTF. Shortly after, Radiance hired Taylor’s former UAPTF boss John Stratton—who believes he is haunted by Skinwalker Ranch dogmen—and the two now work together at Radiance.
 
Maybe making the government’s UFO investigation an offshoot of the Ancient Aliens cinematic universe—movie versions of both Ancient Aliens and the government’s UFO investigation are due out next year—was not the best way to gain credibility for the subject. But it entirely in keeping with the quality of ufology that the same small group of interconnected true believers keep mucking everything up and seemingly are impossible to expel. 
14 Comments
Joe Scales
7/1/2022 02:09:52 pm

"This week, to distract from the January 6 Commission hearings, Fox News devoted multiple segments to UFOs..."

No, they're covering them as well. But thanks for reminding me why I left. You simply make too many errors of fact in pushing your preferred political narrative, which has long been your discrediting bane.

Reply
Cucker Tarlson
7/3/2022 09:35:50 am

Agreed. I used to really enjoy this blog, but the cringe politics have proved to be increasingly a disappointing distraction.

Reply
Alphard Grape
7/1/2022 02:44:57 pm

"But it certainly sounds like someone found it a conflict of interest for Taylor to be a Pentagon employee tasked with analyzing UFO reports and also a reality TV star investigating some of those same UFO reports for entertainment."

Thanks for the laugh! Reality TV??? Whose reality are we talking about? Maybe it wasn't so much a conflict of interest as it was a problem with the "reality".

There was a popular bumper sticker and t-shirt phrase when I was a child. Not sure who is responsible for it but, it went a little something like this..."Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs". Should be updated to say, Reality is subjective and vulnerable to the variable of the dollar bill.

Reply
Kent
7/1/2022 07:47:39 pm

In what universe does having only two PhD's qualify one as "chief scientist"?

If his boss called him that that's what he was.

Title ≠ Role

In the best of all possible worlds the Defense Department would hire Jeff Baxter from the Doobie Brothers to work on missile defense. Oh, I've just been handed a note. Wait a minute....

Michio Kaku may be a "fame whore" (not my words) but he can walk you through how to do PDE's. For those of you in Rio Linda, that's undergrad work.
https://mkaku.org/home/articles/so-you-want-to-become-a-physicist

Really smart and accomplished people are entitled to branch out. As are less smart and less accomplishied peope. Case in point: Avi Loeb's time with Israeli Sayeret Maktal. (sp?). Stanton Friedman built a career in physics with "only" a Master's Degree.

"What's your casein point?" said the dairy farmer.

Of course the Unabomber was a math genius.

Then there's the case of the astrophysicist President of American University who liked to play telephone sex games involving cages with child care providers from his office. That's branching out a bridge too far.

Calma te!

Reply
Bob Jase
7/2/2022 03:28:03 pm

That these folks believe in 'space brothers from Saturn' like a '30's pulp magazine because a gas giant is exactly like Earth environmentally tells you all you need to know about their relationship with reality.

Reply
Clete
7/2/2022 06:18:41 pm

It seems to me that equating Travis Taylor with intelligence is not a real good idea.

Reply
Kent
7/6/2022 06:06:16 pm

To paraphrase Stalin, how many PhD's have you? Bidding starts at two.

Reply
Tom M
7/6/2022 12:25:10 am

Travis Taylor is proof you can be educated and still be stupid. I find “ The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” totally unwatchable. It’s the exact clone of “The Curse of Oak Island” your just substituting “lost treasure” with paranormal crap. Not only should Taylor know better, he should be ashamed of himself. At least Rick and Marty Lagina along with their partner Craig Tester seem sincere and are respectful of local history. You know it’s all BS and they’re never going to find anything. But you pull for them anyway. There is absolutely no one on “Skinwalker Ranch” that’s even remotely likable. From Taylor to “Snake” head of security, to the idiot who is referred to as “lead investigator” it’s all so painful to watch. And don’t get me started on “Skinwalker” owner Brandon Fugal who gives off the I’m a con man, this is all a money grab vibe. Fugal bought the ranch from Robert Bigelow who wanted to believe in all this paranormal nonsense. Bigelow ran multiple “experiments” and “tests” to prove the existence of ghosts, goblins, and shapeshifting aliens. Surprisingly he found nothing! Now Fugal is doing the same all on “History’s” dime and to make a buck in the process.


I’ve been meaning to check in on your James Dean/UFO book. What’s the status? I read you article on James Dean in Esquire last fall. Even watched you on TV on one of those UFO programs but haven’t been to your blog. I’d be interested in reading your take of it all. Film stars of the 1950’s and UFO’s, what’s not to like?

Reply
Joe Scales link
7/7/2022 10:44:52 am

"At least Rick and Marty Lagina along with their partner Craig Tester seem sincere and are respectful of local history."

I disagree. Rick, Marty and Craig push lies and distort history with each and every episode of that accursed nonsense of a show. There was never a rational basis, historical or otherwise, to believe there was ever a treasure to be had there. Their folksy charm notwithstanding.

http://www.criticalenquiry.org/oakisland/index.shtml

Reply
Tom M
7/10/2022 03:38:14 pm

I said I found the Lagina’s likable. I didn’t say believable. If you watch such shows for historic or scientific content I think you miss the point. I watch “Oak Island” for entertainment value. Just as I would “Game of Thrones”, “Dexter”, “Justified”, or anything else on TV. Tell me a compelling story with at least likable characters, if not interesting, and I’ll give it a go. Now you can argue that the format is set up in a documentary style, on a channel that supposed to be about history, which makes it all misleading and I would agree with you. But “History” has about as much to do with actual history as “MTV” has to do with music. Those smart enough see shows like “Oak Island”, and “Skinwalker Ranch” for what they are. And those not smart enough believe in what they pretend to be. No amount of logic or reasoning will change that. “Ancient Aliens” is a perfect example. It’s a religious experience for many.

Joe Scales
7/21/2022 01:34:26 pm

Likeable liars then, because they lie and distort history with each and every episode. I don't find that likeable at all and you shouldn't give them a pass based upon their charisma. They do as much a disservice to history as Ancient Aliens.

Tom M
7/31/2022 05:35:34 pm

The story for Rick and Marty Lagina goes something like this. Back in the 1960’s, two boys, two brothers, read a story about buried treasure on Oak Island in Readers Digest and it captures their imagination. Later in life Marty has the means to purchase most of the island and reconnects with his older brother for a bucket list, treasure hunt. In the early 1970’s Leonard Nimoy had syndicated TV show called “In Search of.” As a teenage boy myself, I vividly remember an episode of the “treasures buried at Oak Island” and thinking how cool it would be to hunt for lost treasure. So the back story Joe, speaks to me. Perhaps it’s nostalgia, but I’m move forgiving of “Oak Island” than most. And I agree with you wholeheartedly that these claims of Shakespeare’s lost manuscripts and Templar treasure are pure fantasy. I think the gig is up with Marty and he long ago concluded that there’s nothing there. And if he was still paying for it, he’d have pulled the plug by now. Rick on the other hand, may still be a true believer. But “The Curse of Oak Island” has become such a cash cow for “History” it’s now so much bigger than a brotherly treasure hunt. So if I had to guess, I’d say it’s “History” that’s pushing these fantastical claims more than the Lagina’s. But by all means Joe, if you want to champion the purity of history, more power to you. I’ll just watch for a little light entertainment.

Dolores Hendricks
7/15/2022 03:35:54 pm

What is it that people like you find it necessary to ridicule anything you don’t understand? Dr. Taylor (and tell us again what your credentials are please) was invited to the Skinwalker Ranch to provide a scientific approach to the odd occurrences and fully expected to find a reasonable, acceptable explanation. He was a skeptic. He’s had some very negative physical and psychological experiences from his investigations. You,we, all of us should be commending him on his courage to continue to find answers that are of extreme importance to all of us.

Reply
Jack
7/25/2022 03:58:19 pm

Bwhahahahhahahah

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