ELECTIONS 2016: THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

It is not the Candidates.

IT IS THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS THEMSELVES.
                                     

                                       

No matter which Presidential Candidate we choose on November 8 that individual, when sworn into the Presidency next January, will have his or her hands on the Nuclear Football and its Armageddon unleashing Codes.
                                                  

                                                       

Open that Football, for whatever reason, intentional or accidental, and the most dangerous game in human history kicks off! 
But the sobering reality is that it is Not a sports game. Not a video game. Not virtual reality.
                                                  

                                                     

                                                     

The "game's" consequences stare us starkly in the face:
OMNICIDE. GLOBAL DESTRUCTION. ANNIHILATION of HUMANITY.
ABORTION OF ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS.

And all of this in just a matter of minutes. Before you can finish your Facebook Post or even your Tweet.
                                                  

                                                    

                                                    


                                                    

We need to keep in our minds and hold in our hearts One True Thing:

No matter the Winner on November 8, 2016, WE ARE, every single one of us,the LOSERS.
                                                

                                                 

Though the Players will have changed. The Existential Threat to our very existence will continue....UNLESS....

UNLESS, WE, ALL OF US TOGETHER, Do Something to STOP IT!

HOPE by itself is not enough. But HOPE coupled with ACTION can and will make a difference. 

It is already happening. Global and National Legal Movements. Grass roots resistance. Signed and sent petitions to lawmakers in the US and abroad:
                                                

                                                    

RESOLUTION L.41- just passed by the UN General Assembly on October 27 orders the convening of a March 2017 Conference to negotiate a legally binding treaty prohibiting Nuclear Weapons. THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED. The successful adoption of the resolution, despite US and Russian Federation objections and opposition (the two nations own 90% of the world's Nuke Stockpile) was the result of the other nations and people of the world crying out "ENOUGH!" to the continued threat posed to their existence by the Nuclear Armed Nations. 
                                                  

                                                 

   


This Resolution has been lauded as a non-violent, courageous revolt against the Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear War Policies of the Nine Nuclear Armed Nations.

The UN Resolution is backed and supported, thus far, by: 
The European Parliament
Amnesty International 
17 Nobel Laureates
Greenpeace International
The International Red Cross
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

                                             

 "THIS HISTORIC DECISION IS A VOTE FOR COMMON SENSE AND HUMANITY. IT BRINGS US A STEP CLOSER TO A WORLD FREE FROM THE HORRORS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE AND INDISCRIMINATE WEAPONS EVER CREATED."     
(Amnesty International Announcement on UN passage of RES. L.41)

"A legally binding instrument to prohibit Nuclear Weapons, leading towards their total elimination."     

So, yes, there is hope. In the meantime, the Nuclear Clock is ticking. TIME IS NOT ON OUR SIDE. This is only a FIRST STEP.
                                                                           


                                                                             

 On this Issue of Issues this BLOG has been Non-Partisan in this election cycle. There is no "cherry-picking" here of the candidates' positions. Such info is out there for us to peruse and view.

But, yes, it is so important for us to know their positions on this Preeminent Issue.


                                           

We also should know the positions of any US Senators or members of Congress who are up for election/re-election in our states/districts.

One wrong move. One mistake or miscalculation. One moment of anger. One cocktail too many.
Like a bullet fired from a gun, once that hair-trigger is pulled, the missiles can never be called back to their silos, bombers or subs.
                                                 
                                                 

                                                 

The Candidates, despite their larger than life public images, are human after all - just like the rest of us. With failings, flaws and weaknesses.

All of this destructive, death-dealing power should never be left in the hands of one person. IT IS MORE THAN TIME to take the TEMPTATION and THE WEAPONS AWAY!

We must never give up! The Weapons will not dismantle themselves.Make your voice be heard. On election day and every day thereafter. The choice is ours....
                                                 

                                                   

CLICK DAISY AD, 1964

"We must either love each other. Or we must die." President Lyndon Johnson


ABOLITION IN OUR TIME. THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES.

                                 

     

OBAMA: 3 (NUCLEAR) STRIKES AND HE'S OUT! POTUS WHIFFS ON THE MOST DANGEROUS NUCLEAR WEAPONS ISSUES OF OUR TIME

"OBAMA UNLIKELY TO DROP OPTION OF FIRST STRIKE", "USE OF NUCLEAR ARMS" NYTS, Today, Sept 6, 2016.

Ending his presidential term which he began with a vision of "a world without Nuclear Weapons", Obama has now decided to do nothing at all to forward that hopeful vision!

Instead, he is pulling us backwards into the Cold War by committing our nation and its treasure to the rearmament and rejuvenation, euphemistically called "modernization", of our entire Nuclear Weapons Arsenal.
                                                 


                                                     

After consulting with his current crop of "experts" and "advisers", he has decided that he will NOT officially take the No First Use Pledge.
STRIKE ONE!

He had the opportunity to take our deadly, destructive arsenal off "Hair Trigger Alert" - the "de-alerting" option.
This would have reduced the now perilously high risk of mutual miscalculation, accident, malevolent hacking and other possible inadvertent "launches".
Making it likely for a conventional conflict to quickly escalate (see Ukraine/NATO) into a full-blown Nuclear War. US and NATO Nuclear Warheads and Bombs are stashed in Turkey, Italy, Netherlands and Germany.
STRIKE TWO!

Obama had the opportunity to allow the aging, scandal-ridden ICBM complexes buried "across the American West" to die a natural death in their silos, removing them from our unholy Triad Trinity of ICBMs, Trident Subs and Bombers. He will NOT do so.
STRIKE THREE!


                                               

                                           

He made these terribly misguided decisions after consulting with his "advisers". As noted here before, it has always been a small, unelected, unaccountable group of individuals who have made and are making Life and Death decisions like this for all of us.

There are many experts here and internationally who disagree with Obama's advisers.This includes his former top Nuclear Policy adviser former Gen James E. Cartwright who last month wrote an OP-ED in The Times staking out positions contrary to the President's current crop of advisers. CLICK





                                                                         
                                                                         

                                              




We should be morally outraged by these decisions... or rather no decisions since POTUS has left decades of now irrelevant Nuclear War policies in place.

The Times quotes Andrew Weber former Asst Sec of Defense for Atomic Programs under Obama: "The defense complex is doing a full court press." 
Follow the $! There are Billions to be made from the "modernization" of our Nuclear Arsenal. Already, several military corporations and contractors are locked in fierce competition for the "new" ICBM contract! CLICK


                                                 

  


                                                      

                                                  


But despite these setbacks, it is important to take heart and to continue the struggle to End These Weapons In Our Lifetimes.

Former Sec of Def William J Perry, quoted in the article:
"IT'S THE RIGHT TIME" for a "No First Use Pledge".
Perry is conducting a "Time Is Running Out" campaign for Nuclear Weapons Abolition. 

The Marshall Islands Lawsuits vs. the Nuclear Armed Nations for violating the NPT, Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, are still winding their way through the courts of the world.


                                                    

There is now a Lawsuit vs. the US for providing military aid to a nation (Israel) in violation of the NPT Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty LINK
                                                   

                                                     

                                                     


The "Humanitarian Initiative' has 127 nations aboard calling for an International Convention to Legally Ban Nuclear Weapons.


                                                  

                                                   

 Since their start last May, these Blog Posts have encouraged "Millenials" to take serious note of what is happening.
It is, after all, the World... or lack of one...that you and your children will inherit.

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION! There are numerous Anti-Nuclear Weapons organizations which you can join including: GLOBAL ZERO and ICAN.

As President Obama stated at Hiroshima last May: "Persistent effort can roll back the possibility of a catastrophe."



                                                    

His three decisions, if left unchallenged and unchanged, may well lead us from his "World Without Nuclear Weapons" to A World Destroyed By Them.

WE CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN! ABOLITION IN OUR TIME

CLICK for the Times Front Page Story                                                  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/science/obama-unlikely-to-vow-no-first-use-of-nuclear-weapons.html?ref=todayspaper