Nuclear threat

TPP wants to explain to everyone younger that the world has been here before and it was a very bad thing. TPP was high school age at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, probably the low point of the cold war.  An old friend wrote to wish me well should things go wrong and he hoped I'd remembered all of the duck and cover drills from grade school.  One well-ingrained memory was helping the family of a good friend build a bomb shelter in their basement, and my Father explained that we were not going to do the same thing because one way or another, it wouldn't matter.  Another old friend used to say things never change they just get more chronic.  With two narcissistic leaders each acting like they want to blow something up with nuclear weapons, it's about as chronic as it can get.  Morons! Neither can be trusted to not make the wrong decision. Neither cares about people, only their own reputation.  Both want to look strong, so neither wants to back down. Neither has the intellect to find a diplomatic exit.  So yes, this is very worrisome.  In fact standing up to the POTUS probably enhances Kim's stature in NK.  Hope GnOPe understands this is not a role made for a person like T-rump. Here's some satire from the earlier time frame thanks to the Pharyngula blog. Hope it helps keep your spirits up.  Who ever thought this would become relevant again?  So much progress, so much greatness!  

Longing for the good ole days & a president to take up back there

The other day a self-professed supporter of T-rump said something to the effect that "those of us who are old enough remember the 50s and 60s and just how good the world was, and all we want is to go back to such good times". And somehow T-rump is the man to do this? TPP doubts this, but being old enough to clearly remember the 50s and 60s, TPP wants to know what this woman was doing, and where was she doing it?  Doesn't she remember the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis? TPP was helping friends build fall out shelters in their basements. Doesn't she remember civil rights, and the marches to Selma and the assassination of MLK?  And she doesn't remember cops beating black people for wanting equal rights. Or JFK? Doesn't she remember Vietnam? How about the anti-war movement?  Guess those Ozzie and Harriet and leave it to beaver reruns were distracting her and she missed all the news. Does that speak to skewed and selective memories filtered by white privilege or what?  This is the wonderful life T-rump supporters want to return to.  TPP says, "Wake up!" And this was a woman supporting the most unequal rights candidate maybe ever, wishing for a past that never was. So easy for a rich grifter to manipulate.

Thank you Stanislav Petrov!

On this date in 1983 the world "dodged a bullet".  The USSR defense's warning system recorded multiple ICBM launches in the USA, and the Soviet's had a launch on warning rule, a cold war rule too very much like the doomsday machine featured in Dr. Stangelove, a great cold war movie.  However, Lt. Colonel Petrov decided that these were false warnings and stopped the "retaliation" strike.  TPP too clearly remembers the Russian-Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s and our school days' "duck and cover" drills which we called kiss-your-ass-goodbye drills.  In those days TPP actually helped people build bomb shelters in their basements.  Everyone was just sure there was going to be a nuclear war, and these two events are as close as the world ever came.  On the whole Petrov should be made an international hero of world peace.  More on the story at Treehugger and Dr. Strangelove movie pics too!  Image of a USA nuclear test blast in the south Pacific (bikini atoll?).  Man, that would really ruin your beach vacation.