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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269626: Feb 1st 2019 at 6:00:01 AM

[up]The issue was never winning the election, the issue was moving enough of the racist scumbag vote from Bush to guarantee Gore's victory. Which given Gore won that election and only didn't win because they didn't do a recount of Florida's votes or find those "missing" votes, is probably accurate.

Honestly, one of the great failurs of the Democratic party was Al trying to be a gentleman for what he thought was a fair loss.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 1st 2019 at 6:00:53 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#269627: Feb 1st 2019 at 6:21:10 AM

Release so much energy in an instant that it literally ignites the atmosphere, initiating a global firestorm that scours all life from the surface. The science behind this is dubious.

I've always wondered about this. Igniting the atmosphere is such a ludicrously over-the-top idea that I'm curious if it's actually possible. What kind of temperature would you need to accomplish such an extreme feat?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#269628: Feb 1st 2019 at 6:29:52 AM

TLDR: It can't be done as it's energetically unfavourable. It is also not terribly on topic.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#269629: Feb 1st 2019 at 7:27:36 AM

Long story short, the primary defense we have against nuclear war with Russia is the same defense we had against nuclear war with the Soviet Union: the simple fact that nobody wins a nuclear war and everybody except Donald Trump knows that.

Putin is evil, not stupid.

The Nuclear Holocaust is something that's honestly not worth worrying about. It's about as likely to happen as getting hit by a planet-killing meteor, and you have about as much ability to stop it as the meteor too. If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen and there ain't nothing your worrying can do to change that. But it's probably not gonna happen anyway. So why worry?

Tomorrow, a volcano could erupt under Yellowstone and bury us all in magma and ash. But I bet you it won't. If I'm wrong and we all die tomorrow, then I owe you a Coke.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 1st 2019 at 8:31:27 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#269630: Feb 1st 2019 at 7:41:30 AM

So, Brooker is running now? I remember thinking that he was going to run, and then he seemed to go relatively silent when candidates started jumping it.

Well, if anything, these next few days may prove insightful as to which issues he'll focus on and where his general strengths and weaknesses are.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#269631: Feb 1st 2019 at 7:44:07 AM

Ok, so Im old enough to remember the days when the US and the USSR had short and medium range nuclear missiles pointing at each other across the East/West German border. The reason this had everyone worried was that in the event of a Soviet invasion, there was a high risk that the theater NATO commander would use those nukes to protect his troops and stop the invasion. It was thought that there was a good likelihood that WWIII would escalate from there to include the entire globe. So both sides signed the INF treaty in order to descalate tensions and make it less likely that a confrontation across the border would go nuclear.

These days the situation has changed. Russia isnt poised to invade Europe anymore, so the need for us to deploy short to medium range missiles over there has mostly disappeared. Russia uses them to intimidate its other neighbors, like China or Pakistan. By withdrawing from the treaty, we are mostly just acknowledging reality. The real danger comes from the US side, because now we have an excuse to play brinksmanship and deploy our own missiles, which would ratchet up tensions again without serving any real military purpose. Poland, for example, might be happy to host a battery of American nukes.

Edited by DeMarquis on Feb 1st 2019 at 10:44:42 AM

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#269632: Feb 1st 2019 at 7:49:03 AM

Release so much energy in an instant that it literally ignites the atmosphere, initiating a global firestorm that scours all life from the surface. The science behind this is dubious.

That was a concern since the Manhatan Project IIRC. The chances were less than 3 in a million of that happening with the first atomic bombs, anything higher and the project would not go forward.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#269633: Feb 1st 2019 at 7:54:18 AM

[up][up] I think some of Russia’s neighbors have a legitimate reason to want more US forces in their countries, including nukes. Russia hasn’t exactly been respectful when it comes to their borders.

They should have sent a poet.
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#269634: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:04:23 AM

Conventional forces, sure, esp Nato allies. Nukes are too risky, imho.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#269635: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:17:17 AM

At this point, I think developing bigger stockpiles of stronger nukes in nations that already have them is just dick-measuring. We're already across the apocalypse threshold. What else matters?

"My bombs can wipe out human civilization."

"Yeah? Well, mine can wipe it out harder!"

"Mine can wipe it out three times over!"

"MINE can wipe it out SEVEN times over! Yeah, anyone who survives the first six nuclear holocausts, they're totally gonna get it in the seventh!"

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#269636: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:19:49 AM

Agreed. Plus, owning nukes isn't exactly save either. One day there will be an accident with one of them.

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#269637: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:22:39 AM

[up][up] "Mine can wipe out the fucking galaxy! TWICE!"

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#269638: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:34:42 AM

[up]. Because I never pass up an opportunity...

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#269639: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:43:16 AM

Or everything can just go tits up and laughably break like Fallout 76.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#269640: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:48:45 AM

[up] I think I'd prefer the atmosphere-consuming nuclear fireball over that

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269641: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:54:20 AM

I once stated there's no point in ever having more than 5000 nuclear weapons because at that point, you can annihilate anyone and/or most of the Earth's civilizations.

And yet we have so so many more.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#269642: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:57:39 AM

Sort of an aside, but one of the suggested resolutions to the Fermi Paradox is that there is a Great Filter ahead of us that weeds out nearly all civilizations before they can achieve interstellar travel or reach Type II status in their own solar system. One of these filters is self-destruction: all intelligent species discover technology that is able to wipe them out before they reach the wisdom to use it maturely.

Put another way: at some point everyone figures out nukes, or antimatter, or black holes, or Grey Goo, or something similarly destructive, and then some madman pushes the button that deploys it on themselves, and poof, another failed species. We may be just another statistic. Depressing, but at least it presents the possibility that we might be the one species that figures out how not to commit suicide.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:00:32 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#269643: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:58:25 AM

I really don't like Booker, he's a supporter of Charter schools has previously spoken at events hosted by DeVos)

Charter schools are a travesty that are only good for affluent households and advocating for them is nothing more than advancing the interests of the aforementioned group at the expense of everyone else. I don't know or especially care if Booker is well-intentioned or not, it's a bad position and not one that makes me especially inclined towards the idea of his candidacy.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#269644: Feb 1st 2019 at 8:59:14 AM

Stephen Hawking was fond of an "anti-Prime Directive" that any civilization which reached the chance of intersteller travel was wiped out by whoever reached it first.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#269645: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:02:35 AM

That's veering off topic. My point is that the existence of people like Trump and those who support him makes me increasingly doubtful that we are capable of reaching the necessary level of species maturity not to dance under dangling swords that we put there ourselves.

I'd rather not have nukes at all than give control over them to that idiot, and we've now proven that we will gleefully do exactly that. We'll charge into the abyss with an enthusiastic cheer when some charismatic moron says he'll stick it to the hated [liberals/Mexicans/Jews/whatever].

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:05:52 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#269646: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:06:25 AM

Ironically nuclear weapons being so dangerous is their saving grace as well. If they weren’t so dangerous we would have used them already.

That’s the whole issue with tactical nukes.

They should have sent a poet.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#269647: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:07:01 AM

I find it somewhat amazing that I of all people have to keep reminding others on this forum not to get bogged down in apocalyptic doomsaying negativity.

I'm not exactly an optimistic cheerful guy.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#269648: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:07:55 AM

The saving grace is that there are sensible people in charge of the actual firing decisions, who would hopefully not accept a first-strike order from President Cheeto, but I really wish we didn't have to place our trust in such flimsy barriers.

[up] To be clear, I don't believe we're going to get into a nuclear war with Russia. If we were to get into a major conflict, though, I have zero confidence that it would be handled competently by the current administration.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:09:03 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#269649: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:27:55 AM

> Ironically nuclear weapons being so dangerous is their saving grace as well. If they weren’t so dangerous we would have used them already.

Well technically they've been multiple times,twice in war and countless nuclear tests

But yeah,they're too dangerus to use which makes them the best deterrent on hand against a full scale war

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#269650: Feb 1st 2019 at 9:34:30 AM

What was that old movie with the guy in the cowboy hat who cheers and rides a nuclear bomb down to his own destruction?

Because that's humanity.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

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