Gervasi performs a detailed case study regarding how the cruise missile and Pershing II were sold to the American public. Warning: if you’re not already a cynic, this may be hazardous to your mental state.
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Gervasi performs a detailed case study regarding how the cruise missile and Pershing II were sold to the American public. Warning: if you’re not already a cynic, this may be hazardous to your mental state.
Recent conversations about small modular reactors reminded me about the US government’s history of leaving and losing nuclear reactors in various places, during the cold war. To be fair, the Soviets lost a few, too. And, even recently – one aspect of the Russian submarine Kursk that sunk in 2000 [wik] that didn’t get a lot of air-play was the fact that a nuclear reactor and several nuclear warheads sank with it. That must have made recovering the wreck interesting, and I’m sure that NATO intelligence was skipping about with glee at a chance to literally dissect a Russian ballistic missile sub. I wonder how many times the Soviets got to perform similar dissections on US gear?
It was a dark and stormy night in Okinawa, 1962; the seas were beaten into foam by the wind that howled across the island.
No, that’s not right. But it seemed like a better setting for “almost the end of the world.” And there was a storm, but it was a storm of toxic, invisible, lies. Lies were the fuel of the cold war; their target was the population of the whole planet, who were not trusted with anything close to the truth.
I don’t expect even Trump is stupid enough to trumpet this particular endorsement – but he’s got an international fan-base!
For those of you who think that 2020 is the worst year ever, consider the possibility that there is no bottom to how bad things can get.
A US test of MIRV warheads in a ballistic missile. In typical applications, this would be the last thing your eyes were able to see
“Mommy, look! A falling star!”, the child yelled, and pointed. There was a burning line in the sky, splitting into a claw-shape.
The mother enfolded her child in her arms, hugging her tightly to her breast, “Oh, sweetie. Close your eyes and make a wish.” She turned her back on the falling suns and breathed deeply of the warm smell of the child’s hair.
This is depressing; I don’t blame you if you just click ‘Next’.
Don’t you wonder what kind of bolt-holes the wealthy and powerful are building, now, against the new crop of threats? Other than the ridiculous “let’s colonize Mars with rich white people!” meme, they have to know the global warming hammer is going to drop soon and the die-back and displacement is going to be violent. They’ll want a “mineshaft gap.”
If you knew where all the nuclear bunkers were, and all the targets were, you could plan ahead and be the first to leave your bones and bloody scratch-marks on the outside of the bunker door. Good plan!
The US has been working on a series of “upgrades” to its existing nuclear arsenal; it’s a process that was started during the Obama administration, but the research must have been going on for years prior to that.