RSS

Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear War’

January 12th, 2023 - 6:14 pm § in America, Biden, Donald Trump, Foreign Affairs, Politics, Republicans

Be careful who you trust with the nuclear codes

Part of America’s freedom is that we can elect our leaders. That has downsides, although so far not enough to replace democracy with some other system. One of the bigger downsides is that you might get a leader like Trump. America’s voters should think hard before they do that again. Tha[...]

October 3rd, 2022 - 12:30 pm § in China, Foreign Affairs, Russia

Where China stands on Ukraine’s NATO bid

On Sunday, in the state-owned Global Times, Beijing warned the U.S. that allowing Ukraine to join NATO — which the Biden administration doesn’t support — would inevitably escalate the conflict and increase the danger of nuclear war. The Global Times editorial, which is seen as spea[...]

October 2nd, 2022 - 11:06 pm § in Russia

What might happen if Putin goes nuclear

While there’s no sign right now of Russian preparations to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, U.S. and NATO officials are taking Putin’s latest threats “very seriously.” A Russian ex-oligarch who knows Putin well predicts he’ll try to turn things around with the 3[...]

September 27th, 2022 - 2:28 am § in Russia

Will Putin suffer the tsar’s fate?

Tsar Nicholas II, the guy who was shot in a shabby cellar along with his entire family, was warned by his advisers not to assume personal command of the Russian army. If he did, they said, and the war was lost, he would be blamed. Well, we know how that turned out (watch video here). […][...]

September 26th, 2022 - 6:56 pm § in Russia

A day we almost didn’t survive

The Soviet Union’s ICBM detection system was clunky with large gaps in radar coverage. We knew it, and they knew it. That made the Soviets jumpy, and the Cold War more dangerous. The faults of their system very nearly triggered an accidental nuclear war on Monday, September 26, 1983. A single [...]

May 3rd, 2022 - 3:27 pm § in Russia

Don’t kid yourself about nuclear war

The handwringing has begun. Michael Christ, writing for CNN, says (here): “The Pentagon response [to Putin’s latest nuclear saber-rattling] appears to be an ‘extra urgency in developing a new generation of doomsday weapons that could maintain deterrence,’ according to David I[...]

March 9th, 2022 - 2:56 am § in Environment, Russia

ART: Extinction

The poor creatures didn’t understand what was happening. Will the next mass-extinction event be caused by fire from the sky? And radioactive ash? Will we know why? One potential reason: “If there is no Russia, why do we need the planet?” — Vladimir Putin (Click on image to en[...]

March 1st, 2022 - 5:29 pm § in Misc., Russia

Kids hiding under desks

Journalist Jill Filipovic (profile here), who frequently writes op-eds for CNN, says here, “Making the prospect of nuclear war … a part of the international calculus in potential conflict” — which is what Russia’s Putin did this week — is “a startling depart[...]

February 25th, 2022 - 11:45 pm § in Biden, Russia

Ukraine and nuclear risk

For decades, the U.S. and Russia avoided direct confrontations that could escalate to nuclear war. Leaders on both sides were cautious. Putin may be cut from different cloth. Even before he invaded Ukraine, Biden declared sending U.S. troops was off the table, and Russia’s nukes was why, but P[...]

January 25th, 2022 - 4:14 pm § in America, Misc., Russia

The world’s biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons is right under Seattle’s nose

At least, that’s what this article says: “Bangor, Washington, now houses the largest single nuclear weapons site in the world … holding roughly 25% of the United States’ 9,962 nuclear warheads.” Bangor, of course, is the home base of America’s ballistic-missile submar[...]