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.

                                 

     

GOT 12 MINUTES? NUCLEAR WAR AND THAT LAST CUP OF COFFEE

Think of our daily lives. What can we do in 12 minutes?

At work, we're taking a coffee break. At school, the kids are eating lunch or enjoying recess.The mailman is delivering letters on our street.
                                                   
                                                     

                                                    


                                               

We're running an errand to the store. Running some books over to the library. Putting gas in the car.
Checking our e-mail. Maybe making an on-line purchase.
Taking a nap.


                                                    

In that same 12 minutes, the President of the United States can take the Nuclear Football with its computer code cards, unlock our "hair-trigger" Nuclear Warheads and launch the war that really will end it all.


                                                   

                                                  

                                                       

WORLD WAR III.

No one will be left - not us, not any future generation - to ever start any war anywhere ever again on what would be left of this earth.

Like his shadow, the bulky satchel follows the President around. The Vice-President is trailed by his own, duplicate, shadow.


                                                  

There have been so many "close call", "near misses"with the world's Nuclear Weapons Arsenals. Examples:

1979 - Full scale launch against Soviet Union averted at last minute when U.S. Nuclear Weapons operators realize that they are watching a training video and not an actual attack on the U.S.

1996 - Russian President Yeltsin and his military mistake a research rocket launch for U.S. missiles heading for their homeland.
Yeltsin is handed "the football" and is ready to launch when the "error" is discovered.
                                                See Command and Control Book and Upcoming Documentary Film
Any of these "false alarms" could have triggered Nuclear War.


                                                 

That war which President Ronald Reagan said "can never be won and must never be fought".
                                                   

                                                     

Why do we put up with this?!
We do not have to sit by and wait for the inevitable to happen.

But as former Secretary of Defense William J Perry has reminded us, we must take action soon for Time Is Not On Our Side here.


                                                    

"The indefinite combination of human fallibility and Nuclear Weapons carries a high risk of a potential catastrophe." Secretary of Defense, Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Robert S. McNamara
                                            

                                                 

We cannot continue to allow a small group of "experts" in the Nine Nuclear Armed Nations to make Life and Death Decisions for everyone now living and for future generations yet to be born.

This situation is immoral and unconscionable!

We CAN and MUST do something about it.

100 Scientists (20 Nobel Prize winners) recently sent a letter to Mr. Obama advocating an end to our harrowing "hair-trigger alert" Nuclear Weapons posture.CLICK
SEE Letter
                                                  

                                                

As citizens we can organize demonstrations. See the "Nuclear Freeze" movement's Million Person Gathering in Central Park in 1982.CLICK

AND in this Election Year, with the debates coming up, we can ask the candidates to state their positions on this crucial issue.
AND know your Senators and Representatives positions.
                                               


                                                       

                                                   

                                                   
                                                    

                                                      

                                                     

AND then VOTE! 

We can support and/or be involved in Legal Movements here and around the world:

The current Marshall Islands Lawsuits against the Nuclear Armed Nations.


                                                      

The International Humanitarian Pledge Initiative now signed on to by 127 nations demanding a Legal Ban on Nuclear Weapons.


                                                  

Please read our previous Posts and Links on this issue!

Be informed. Take a position. Act within the Law.
This is still a Democracy. We can make our voices heard. Our opinions count.

"Speak Truth To Power" is not a cliche. It really does work!
(See recent Textron Corp. decision to stop all production of Cluster Bombs).CLICK                           

                                               
                                                    

It is our weapon of Self-Defense against the most deadly, devastating weapon in history.

ABOLITION IN OUR TIME!


                                                    

THE ONLY GOOD NUKE IS A DISMANTLED ONE
          

NUCLEAR FOOTBALL ANYONE? IT IS OUR MOST DANGEROUS "GAME"

From today's New York Times to last night's Rachel Maddow show, we see that Nukes Are In The News.

VP Joe Biden on the front page of the TIMES: "There's a guy that follows me, right back here, has the nuclear codes." (speech in Scranton, PA)



                                                   

Last night on her show, Maddow discussed the "Nuclear Football" and its history. Created for JFK in the aftermath of our "global near-death experience" during the Cuban missile crisis, it began to follow Kennedy around in spring of 1963.

That's not all! Maddow points out something that most of us did not know or have forgotten.


                                                     

That there are not One, not Two, but Three Nuclear Footballs that contain the codes the President and/or Vice President of the United States would use to launch World War III. One "football" or "satchel" follows President Obama. One follows Vice President Biden. The third is stored somewhere in the White House. 

Remember the knife-wielding man who entered the White House, running amok through the ground floor?

                                                  
                                                   

           

CLICK for the NYTS Biden story

CLICK for Rachel Maddow Show

All of that destructive power concentrated in one person's hands.


ABOLITION IN OUR TIME. BEFORE WE ARE OUT OF TIME.