Some one was trying to sound presidential.

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“Read the transcript.”

Yeah, not a big fan of spending gobs of money on more nukes.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Here's the rub, so it's not necessarily an unjustified response to some Russian wheels already in motion. Do I like it no? Is it necessary, maybe - but just exactly how many times do we need to blow ourselves up?

Ha Ha! This shit show is just getting started! It's going to be awesome to watch! It's like we have elected Zhapod Beeblebrox. I'm just going to grab a pan galactic gargle blaster and watch the show!

The only way to stop the nukes is more nukes.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Ok that's the first Hitchhikers Guide reference I've seen. Lets hope we don't have endure any Vogon poetry or we could all be doomed

Most of what Trump says makes him sound foolish. But this make sense.

The Minuteman ICBM is 40 years old. The Ohio SSBN's are 20-40 years old and their Trident missiles are 25 years old. The USAF's B-2 bombers are more than 20 years old, and their B-52's are more than 50 years old. The nuclear warheads and bombs are equally old and we haven't done any testing of them since 1992.

Most of this stuff will probably still work, but someday it will need to be replaced. We could get by with fewer than our current 4500+ warheads and with fewer ICBM's/SLBM's/bombers, and hopefully he's looking at those numbers.

If Trump is successful at deploying a smaller but more modern (and more reliable and safer) nuclear force, that would be great.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Well, Putin started the smack talk, didn't he?

Frankly I don't think Russia can afford a lot more nukes unless oil prices rebound. Even then, a kleptocracy is unlikely to invest heavily in their military beyond the amount necessary to prop up their friends.

How does that saying go, the only way to stop a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.

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#WeAreTheForge #BlackGunsMatter

"Look, will you guys at leats accept that you are a bunch of dumb asses and just trust me on this one? Please?" BarryP 7/30/2012

Nuke yourselves and leave me out of it.

I'll be sad to see some of my favourite triathletes go.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

You're assuming you won't be a victim. Nice.

Australia is unlikely to suffer a direct hit.

If it does, it will be because US nuclear capable ships are in port somewhere, most likely Sydney. I live about 1000km from Sydney, so she'll be right.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Does trump think being nutty and unpredictable make america great again?

Bring back the 1950's. That will make America great again.

I think you're assuming things that you shouldn't.

Yeah, we'd hate for the vast majority of Aus to turn into an uninhabitable desert wasteland, with only some isolated pockets of populations. Oh, wait...

Back to the OP, if the aresenals aging, wouldn't it be a good idea to test and possibly replace, when other, hostile or potentially hostile, states have a nuclear aresenal?

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/USNuclearModernization


This was started quietly under Obama, but he tired to keep it on the down low. Trump will use it to rattle sabers.

Do they necessarily have to be replaced if they're working? Isn't this why it's a good idea to have Noble laureate nuclear physicist as the head of the Department of Energy rather than another reality TV personality?

Modernization is one thing, but Trump said he wanted to expand our capability. I don't see any reason we need to have more nuke capability, and frankly, I don't see nuclear arme bombers as all that useful anymore. I know this is anathema in many conservative circles, but I think the US could get by just fine with 2 legs of the triad (ICBMs and SLBMs).

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Some stuff could simply be "upgraded" (e.g. the old computers in the ICBM silos). Some stuff is getting old and difficult to maintain (e.g. B-52 bombers). Some stuff simply wears out (e.g. 40-year-old submarines).

The warheads will probably still work. Some testing is currently done to see if the train of events required to get the nuclear material to fission is still being done. But we haven't tested any warheads all the way to include the nuclear detonation since 1992. Who knows if some problem might be there? We had a problem with AGM-65 missiles (that contained conventional high explosives) in the 1980's. During peacetime training launches of the missile, some of them would go ballistic once they were a few hundred meters in front of the launch aircraft. We eventually determined that after a few years of sitting on the shelf, metallic "whiskers" started to form between the two metal rings for the "crush fuse" in the nose of the missile. The missile was effectively armed as soon as it was launched, but the firing train wasn't yet aligned so when it fired it destroyed the missile's guidance. The missiles were fixed or the crush fuse was disconnected, and the AGM-65 has been used successfully ever since.

Yes, it would be a good thing to have a knowledgeable person heading up the DoE. It doesn't look like that's going to happen.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Here's the problem - what you just described is a logical, multi-sentence strategy that was thought out and put in context. Trump threw out a random comment about NUCLEAR POLICY in a 140 character tweet that can be interpreted in multiple ways, with NO context. He stated "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." You interpreted "Strengthen and expand" as technology advancement, but who's to say that's what Trump meant?

As of this morning, he has doubled down on his quote: http://www.reuters.com/...uclear-idUSKBN14B1ZZ
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski spoke with Trump on the phone and asked him to expand on his tweet. She said he responded: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all."

I'm hoping the premise that "Trump just says stuff to get all the libtards riled up!" is the case here. Throw out some stupid bombshell (pun intended) but then get everyone to do the action that actually needs to be done. No need for more nukes, just modernize our capability.

And yes, get ride of nukes on bombers. The scenarios where you would actually use a bomber to deliver the nuke (vs. using an ICBM/SLBM) are pretty far fetched. Not to mention, the aircrews on the bombers could concentrate on the conventional missions that they are actually being tasked to do.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Trump has clarified that's tweet. And, no, he's not talking about some sort of ational, pragmAtic upgrade of systems to maintain our nuclear capabilities. He is explicitly calling for another arms race. Unreal.

“Let it be an arms race … we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all"

http://www.politico.com/...s-race-russia-232944

The Minuteman ICBM is 40 years old. The Ohio SSBN's are 20-40 years old and their Trident missiles are 25 years old. The USAF's B-2 bombers are more than 20 years old, and their B-52's are more than 50 years old. The nuclear warheads and bombs are equally old and we haven't done any testing of them since 1992.


All true.

But that is, I've read over $1trillion in costs for those upgrades. Where is THAT money going to come from? Trump is about to give Americans a massive tax break, apparently. How big will the debt be in 2 - 3 years? I thought Republicans were about small government and fiscal responsibility!

Of course that's no excuse for the massively irresponsible and reckless comment he made on twitter. World conflicts even wars have started have started on less.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I had a weird thought. So what if the nukes won't work? Does the likelihood of their successful detonation on target factor into Russia's tactics? Would their tactics and actions change at all if it were known beyond doubt that they all worked fine?

Their mere existence serves the intended purpose. I can't imagine a scenario in which Russia counts on our nuclear arsenal failing.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Well it was the Clinton campaign who chose to cover their assess by pretending we were in another Cold War...

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Much ado about nothing. I was listening to a Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst this morning and the US nuclear arsenal is Reagan era technology that was scheduled to be upgraded anyways. We would see the same buildup and spending under Clinton. She just wouldn't have said anything.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

"Well it was the Clinton campaign who chose to cover their assess by pretending we were in another Cold War... "

She took a harder line with Putin over Syria and sanctions but never said anything about an arms race. Its very strange that both Trump and Putin have mentioned increasing nuclear capacity in the past couple of days, especially since they're supposed to be such good buddies.