The nuclear arsenal Trump currently controls includes some 1,700 deployed nuclear warheads, most of them with an explosive force of 100 to 800 kilotons, six to 50 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. If used in a large-scale attack on Russia, they could kill more than 100 million people in the first afternoon. And a Russian counterattack would kill at least that many here in the United States.
Those who survived the initial fires and explosions would find themselves living in a wasteland that we cannot imagine. None of the things we need to keep ourselves alive would be available. There would be no electric grid, no cell phones, no internet, no food distribution system, no system for distributing gasoline or natural gas or heating oil, no law and order. And in the months following the initial attacks most of those who survived those attacks would also die—from starvation, epidemic disease, radiation sickness, and exposure to the elements.
The disaster would not be confined to the US and Russia. The smoke from burning cities in both countries would loft enormous quantities of smoke into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun and dropping temperatures across the planet an average of 18°F. In the interior regions of North America and Eurasia temperatures would drop 45-50°F, food production would plummet, and the vast majority of the human race would starve. In the first two years alone, three-quarters of humanity—6 billion people—would die.
Also see this great podcast episode about this from It Could Happen Here with Robert from Behind The Bastards.
You didn’t need a shitty AI image for this. It only weakens your stance when you use the fascists’ tools
That is an image cited from Trump that is specifically relevant to the article as journalistic context.
This is not a lazy AI picture like it first appears, I get the kneejerk reaction I had the same one but it makes perfect sense here.
Hard disagree. Using his images legitamizes using AI. If this was an article discussing his massive hard on for AI images then maybe, but you’re discussing nuclear arsenals here not his AI images
You want the article to not show the image that it’s talking about, that illustrates his dangerously cavalier attitude towards nuclear annihilation? I feel like the president posting images of himself with his finger on the button is relevant info.
For real.
“Fuck them for posting an AI image that contextualizes the article.”
Foaming at the mouth to say fuck AI under every post with anything makes it seem like you’re an AI that just detects generated images and stirs up shit in the comments
Yes, because he’s shown an obsession with nukes several times before. That can be discussed without slapping the image large front and center. Even just a link or a screenshot of his social accounts where he actually posted it would be better
I propose a compromise, they could have done something like this, it only takes a second or two.
or
Now I’m 100% on board
Bullshit. There is no reason to show any picture of him here, let alone one that tries to make him look cool.
Nice catch. I would add there is no reason for the face of this douche to be on this article either. Frankly it raises some questions about op, especially as the pic tries to make the president not look like a weak fat demented bitch, which he is.
No. It was the image Trump posted, and it adds value to the article.
Read the image caption
I’m almost 15 years into my worrying about that.
I read half of Doomsday Machine and developed some health issues, then had to put it down.
To be honest, I’m worried that anyone could have access to the American nuclear arsenal.
Suppose that some event occurs, and one of the possible responses by the US government is a nuclear strike. I dunno what, let’s say that Madagascar launches a rocket that’s indistinguishable from a nuclear ICBM targeting Florida. In a matter of minutes:
- The president is surrounded by security and hauled off to a military command. Their family and staff probably don’t get the same travel arrangements.
- Some analyst explains the problem and that there is a short period of time to act decisively
- A panel of generals who have spent their entire military careers doing nothing but planning for nuclear war and disassociating themselves from the actual civilian deaths it would incur enter the room as “advisors”.
- The president now has X minutes to decide if America is so important as a concept that everyone in the world deserves to die horribly if that concept is threatened, while surrounded by strangers whose job is death.
I have no confidence that any American president in this situation, dementia-ridden fascist or not, would say no.
As societies, we should agree out leaders don’t get bomb shelters. They go down with the ship.
It must be dismantled.
Actually, the fact that we’re alive tells you that many historic presidents, drunk or not, did say no.
Russians too.
Don’t worry, it is not like he is shit balls crazy and wants to nuke a hurricane or something equally stupid…
It I told you he threatened to nuke the sun to punish it for solar flares, you would not be able to discount it entirely without checking.
For anyone truly interested in this topic, you should read Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. It is eye opening and sobering. Very good book, well researched. People think they know about this topic but they don’t. You can tell because they talk flippantly.
Tl;Dr: If someone launches a nuke, the odds are more than good that the world is over in about 90 minutes.
I also recommended Doomsday Machine by Daniel Elsburg.
His job was to go around all the US nuclear facilities and calculate the risk of a malicious or accidental launch and it’s apocalyptical effects.
He said when he saw Dr Strangelove with his colleagues at Rand, he thought it was a documentary and didn’t understand how the writers got so much classified Intel
If you wanna believe this guy, he already asked for the codes against Iran and was refused
Further down the page it says there’s no evidence to support his claim.
That is correct. If you read what I said, “if you wanna believe this guy”. Thank you for pointing that out.
They really shouldn’t have used an AI image.
What happened to Common Dreams?
Edit: oh fuck, that image was generated by and posted by Trump.
the president of the United States has been posting an image of himself firing nuclear weapons at Earth from a spaceship. How worried should we be?
I used to have faith the bureaucracy would stop a mad president from launching nukes, I no longer do.
Impulsivity
Trump has bragged that he makes decisions based on his “gut instinct.” In a 2018 interview he defended style of decision-making by claiming, “I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody’s brain can ever tell me.”
This has actually changed since he took office.
Trump’s “gut” used to be influenced by Fox News. These days, it’s manipulated by Grok (with Musk pulling the strings).
The scariest thing about this is that we don’t need to build skynet. Grok already has access to the nuclear button, via whispering in Trump’s ears.
Just now figuring that out are you? You know you’re like a decade too late, right?
Did this only just occur to the authors?
Yeah, as if reasonable people haven’t been worried about this shit for more than a decade already.
Eh… i’m much more worried about it now than I was then…
I think we should also be a little worried that he’s like 200 times bigger than anyone else.
