Obviously I'm a wee bit late, however I think it's important to discuss this, and to address his points.

Here's the video to discuss -

There's a few points that I want to address and argue against. However, there is most definitely the need for a full open investigation by the US (and other countries') governments. He is absolutely correct when he says there needs to be evidence produced! Real, not just human witnesses, evidence - which I doubt is going to happen any time soon. So, the best we're likely to get will be - either witnesses stepping forward and testifying (under oath - although I see that as somewhat irrelevant - people will lie anyway... and it wouldn't surprise me if there's something written into all the laws that says if it's super highly classified, it's ok to lie under oath), OR some of the US congress (and, unlikely, but...) other government officials will be allowed to visit some of the bases to see what they're talking about (again, unlikely to actually be allowed to discuss anything).

A lot of Mick's points are basically based on "well, I don't believe it" rather than anything really substantial, and so I'm not going to look at those things.

The DOPSR issue - that the DOD allowed Grusch to talk about things that are confidential. West doesn't consider a third possibility (which, I grant, is probably a long-shot). Maybe DOPSR hasn't been read into the whole of these underground projects such that they would perceive Grusch's claims as being made up. Alternatively, Grusch is treading a very fine line (along with the above). I'm writing out of my arse here, but perhaps the fact that Grusch is merely explaining what his complaint is about allows for the possibility that he's not breaking secrets, since he doesn't actually have the information he's hinting at - but has only been given second or third-hand stories about.

Mick's maths, and the numbers of crashed ships. Firstly, yes, it does presume a very high crash rate, even if there were literally hundreds of thousands of UFOs flying above us (as per FS). Why don't you see them? Again, FS will tell you it's because you're not using IR... I wonder what Mick & co would say about those... However, West is *presuming* a few things. Firstly, the level of technology that's gone into the craft. Sure, you'd need advanced craft to travel interstellar (especially if using portals). However, that doesn't then mean that planetary craft need the same levels of technology... you could have a nice safe Volvo, or you could ride a bike - both will get you from A to B. Directly in relation to what Mick said, although commercial airline crashes are fairly rare (actually, there's a few per year - obviously Mick doesn't bother to count the ones outside of the US or UK), he certainly doesn't include the fairly large number of smaller aircraft that crash. And of these, there's many many of them, even in the US alone. So, I suggest this analogy would be better - planetary UFOs compared to light aircraft. (quick fact check... apparently, the FAA says there's 5 crashes *per day* - although I haven't seen the FAA site to check this). There's one large commercial flight crash per year, on average (approx).

Secondly, I would suggest that using portals is inherently dangerous, and although a lot of safeguards are in place, accidents will still happen. There's also other possibilities going on, and as someone has suggested, maybe these crashes are because it's the angsty teenagers on a joyride that are crashing, not the more mature adults :p

Thirdly, secrecy. Obviously, Mick has no real understanding of what this means - nor of what governments are willing to do to keep such secrets. Military organisations (e.g., DoD) are more than willing to kill people. That's effectively what the billions (or is it trillions now?) of dollars are spent on every year - preparing soldiers to kill people. We also need to remember that civilian casualties are part and parcel of the MIC's operations, so bumping off a few wannabe informers is nothing to them. It is, effectively, what they're paid to do! And that's not even considering the vast number of people who believe in keeping the secrets anyway, out of some (dare I suggest, misguided*) sense of loyalty and/or patriotism.

(* if you're aware that there is intelligent, technologically advanced alien life here on the planet, and that there's a whole galaxy of them out there, then still believing in this concept of 'nation' and national pride IS misguided! This is not something that the whole of earth's population should be kept in the dark about!!!)

Fourthly, aliens have murdered humans... OMGs, shock horror! How absolutely crazy is the idea that an alien intelligence would do something that humans have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years, with barely the blink of an eye, and which happens in the tens of thousands of times per year.... Anyone who is shocked by this is really naive! Aliens are not angels (and even angels kill!)

Fifthly, AARO hasn't seen any.... that they've been honest in telling you they haven't. Besides which, the phrase 'verified' or 'credible evidence' is always a specific phrasing. It also depends on just how hard they look.

Sixth, metamaterial. Sure, some in the past has been hoaxed or badly investigated. However, there's a logical fallacy in assuming that what happened in the past is the same as what's happening now, or accounts for *all* occurrences in the past.

UFO mythology - is just an opinion, and counts for absolutely nothing else worth commenting on.

Dimensions - again, Mick has nothing to actually say here other than "I am not able to believe this, so it must be crap". Regardless of the fact that theoretical physics and mathematics says it's quite possible!

Travis Taylor - yeah, ok, that's fair! I've seen him on Skinwalker Ranch, and I find he's a bit of an idiot, and not very scientific!

Kean & Blumenthal - ad hominem... nuff said! His idea of what constitutes as 'silly' claim is just weird!

Ross Coulthart bit - again, ad hominem. Also needs to be pointed out that while Coulthart is pushing a UFO narrative, West himself is pushing a 'lot of crap' narrative.

And then some more ad hominem...

The Woo (or Wu?) - firstly, paranormal shouldn't really be put in the same basket as aliens, unless it's merely in the context of 'stuff our physicists/scientists haven't figured out yet'. So, I don't get why this was even brought up. However, "it's troubling that these beliefs actually exist within some people in the intelligence community"... WOW! How's that for non-scepticism??? Perhaps those people in the intelligence community believe in such things because that's what their science and experience has demonstrated to a sufficient level of proof? He is, basically, assuming that those people are choosing to believe without sufficient evidence, rather than that they have the evidence and that's why they believe... which is certainly true for some people, but shouldn't be for the types of people we're talking about!

He makes a direct reference to RV, and obviously he'd be mortified to know how wrong he is with the amount of scientifically validated evidence there is for it! (not just FS)

So, those are my thoughts, although I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but if anyone can counter my counters, that would be good as well! I like a good debate.