The Year of Our Orb 2026
Use The Farce By Ron James
January 2026
Somewhere in America, a serious person in a serious building is giving a serious briefing about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.
Somewhere else in America, a different serious person is whispering: “We can’t call them UFOs anymore.”
And somewhere else, an even more serious person, is updating a spreadsheet titled:
ALIENS: IMPACT ON MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES
Yes. We have arrived at the era where UFO Disclosure isn’t just a national security question; it’s a liquidity event. According to a recent report, a former Bank of England policy expert warned that an official confirmation of aliens could trigger financial chaos, and urged contingency planning for the day the White House says, “Surprise, everybody… we’re not alone.”
That’s right. The “ontological shock” has been upgraded from a personal journey into a potential run on the banks.
The song remains the same. But now it has a chorus, a bridge, and apparently, a derivatives desk.
The Disclosure Cycle, Now With Extra Steps
I’ve been around this field long enough to watch the terminology evolve like a nervous witness on a stand:
“UFO” became “UAP.”
“Alien abduction” became “unwanted interstellar onboarding.”
“Contactee” became “experiencer.”
“Crash retrieval” became “material acquisition under ambiguous circumstances.”
And yet, the emotional rhythm never changes:
A new hearing gets teased.
Everyone posts the same three screenshots.
Someone says, “this time it’s different.”
Someone else says, “it’s a psyop.”
We all end up watching the same movie over and over again, except the ticket price is now a monthly subscription.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Congress: “We Want Answers.” Also, Congress: “Please Brief Us Since 2004.”
One of the more tangible recent developments is that UAP language keeps showing up in defense policy plumbing. A DefenseScoop report notes that the FY2026 NDAA (in its conferenced form) would require Pentagon briefings on UAP intercept operations going back to 2004, specifically involving the North America defense commands.
Because nothing says “rapid transparency” like:
“Can you circle back on the last 22 years?”
The same report also flags provisions aimed at forcing an accounting of UAP-related classification guides (translation: who stamped what, when, and why), plus streamlining data-sharing so AARO can get the goods without every agency playing keep-away with the ball.
On paper, that’s progress.
In practice, it’s like ordering a pizza and getting a beautifully formatted email confirming your request for a pizza, along with a timetable for a committee to study whether pizza exists.
AARO’s New Drop: “Alien Metal” Turns Out to Be… Metal
Then we have the moment that made every materials scientist quietly nod, and every UFO Twitter account loudly reboot.
AARO posted new material in mid-January, including an Oak Ridge National Laboratory synopsis analyzing a metallic specimen. The executive summary is devastating in the most polite way possible: after cross-validated measurements, ORNL concluded the sample was a conventional aluminum-silicon alloy, consistent with known industrial practice, and with no radiological signature.
In other words: if this metal came from a flying saucer, then the saucer’s designers shop at the same aisle as my neighbor fixing a barbecue.
AARO even published a short supplement giving historical context and basically saying, “Look, we can’t prove what it was, but it sure behaves like normal casting material and it’s missing the kind of strengthening additives you’d expect in something ‘advanced.’”
This is the part of the film where the dramatic music pauses and a lab coat clears its throat.
And honestly, I love it. Not because it “debunks” the mystery, but because it demonstrates a rare and endangered behavior in this ecosystem:
Someone tested a thing and published the result.
That’s like spotting a unicorn riding a unicorn.
The National Archives Enters the Chat
In the same spirit of “here are the records, go nuts,” the National Archives has a dedicated UAP research page pointing people to record groups, photographs, moving images, and catalog downloads that can be republished with attribution.
So now the UFO community gets to do what it does best: lovingly interpret government PDFs like they’re sacred scrolls, while arguing whether a smudge is a craft or a staple shadow.
Meanwhile, Hollywood Does What Government Won’t: Give Us a Trailer
As if on cue, the documentary conversation keeps booming. The Age of Disclosure has been doing laps around the cultural track: big buzz, big pushback. The Guardian summarized the skeptical response pretty bluntly, noting critics argue the film leans on familiar grainy footage and anecdotes while questioning the lack of hard evidence.
And yet, it’s also part of why the topic is now dinner-table normal. A Santa Barbara Independent piece described how the film (and hearings) resurfaced Vandenberg-related stories and helped re-mainstream the whole conversation, including witness accounts tied to government attention.
Here is the strange genius of this field: the evidence is often classified, but the content is never out of stock.
Polling: The Public Is Off the Fence (And Onto the Lawn)
A Wired piece highlighted that a YouGov poll from November 2025 found 47% of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth, and the number of “not sure” respondents has dropped dramatically compared to earlier years.
So we’re not just debating UAP now. We’re living in a country where nearly half the room is like: “Yeah, probably. Pass the potatoes.”
Which, if you think about it, is the most human reaction imaginable. We can absorb existential reality-shifts as long as the Wi-Fi works and the queso arrives.
Disclosure Act Whiplash
And because every saga needs a subplot about legislation that sounds like it was named by a screenwriter at 2 a.m., Congress.gov shows a Schumer-submitted amendment to the FY2026 NDAA that frames a “UAP Disclosure Act of 2025.”
Translation: the idea of formalizing disclosure mechanisms continues to live, morph, and reappear, like a classic TV villain who is absolutely gone this season… until the final scene when their hand pops out of the rubble.
The song remains the same.
Greatest Hits of the Week (A Short List, For Our Sanity)
We now have “aliens” in the same sentence as “central bank contingency planning.”
We have a defense policy that wants briefings about UAP intercepts reaching back to 2004.
We have AARO publishing a lab analysis that basically says: “It’s normal alloy.”
We have films sparking public attention while skeptics yell “show me the receipts.”
We have the National Archives saying “fine, here’s a portal, have fun.”
And we have the public increasingly shrugging and saying: “Sure, why not.”
The Quiet Truth Under the Jokes
Here’s my sincere moment, the little flashlight under the chin in the campfire story.
This field is ridiculous, yes. It is also weirdly brave.
Because it’s one of the few arenas where people are trying to talk about the edges of reality without a shared vocabulary, without agreed-upon evidence standards, and while half the audience is either chanting “DISCLOSURE NOW” or screaming “BALLoon!” from the back row.
So we improvise. We rename. We reframe. We argue about ontology. We write laws. We shoot documentaries. We publish metallurgy reports. We demand answers. We refresh our feeds. We do it all again next week.
It’s the same movie. But the cast keeps expanding.
And if the central banks are now involved, I can only assume the next phase of disclosure will come with a new acronym:
UAP-APR (Anomalous Phenomena, Please Refinance)
Until then, keep your mind open, but not so open your brains fall out. And if you find a chunk of “alien metal” in your yard, do me one favor: Before you start a podcast, run a magnet over it.
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Ron James is an Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker and Founder of MUFON TV. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of The Hollywood Disclosure Alliance.
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