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Trump Is Very Confused About Nuclear Weapons | The president says he wants to resume nuclear testing but doesn’t seem to know why. (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 5 days ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/politics@lemmy.world
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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 88 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (8 children)

Been saying this since his first term: he has been looking for an excuse to let a nuke off the chain.

He's threatened it multiple times, and provoked situations that could have led to using one other times.

Only ONE country and president has ever used a nuclear weapon against actual human targets, and he wants to be seen as a big man by being the second. He has absolutely no idea what that means.

He wanted to use them on those illegal Iran strikes, and thankfully the military shut that down. The only thing between DONALD TRUMP, a failed businessman and reality TV persona launching another nuclear attack on this planet, and that not happening is just a few people.

Sit with that for a few minutes.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days ago (7 children)

Donald wanted to nuke a hurricane.

[–] Klear@quokk.au 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The second question here points to a response by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and then notes:

It makes me happy that an arm of the US government has, in some official capacity, issued an opinion on the subject of firing nuclear missiles into hurricanes.

Aged like milk.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 13 points 5 days ago

A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20×10^13 watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 10^13 watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane.

So a nuke would do squat to the hurricane, but kill us all from flinging the rads everywhere

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

"It's just a hurricane! What could it take to stop it? One nuke?"

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[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 18 points 5 days ago

I've been sitting with that since January 20, 2017.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

He is so immature that this might just be petty revenge for not getting nobel peace prize. Yea...

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Sit with that for a few minutes.

Been sitting with that for years. It's pretty awful for the soul.

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[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 24 points 5 days ago

His brain's completely gone. Squash-rot.

And his malignant narcissism requires ever-greater displays of destruction and ugliness. He cannot believe that, when he leaves this world, he'll be no more missed than a flushed turd.

[–] TipRing@lemmy.world 31 points 5 days ago (3 children)

He really wants to use nuclear weapons.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago (2 children)

When asked recently if he would invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump repeatedly emphasized that he was allowed to do it. And I've noticed several other times when he used the same excuse.

I've seen a lot of psychopaths in real life and in the news who had the same perspective. You'll see it in a couple of days, actually, as it happens every year probably in every city that people will leave a bowl of candy out for Halloween, and somebody will take all of the candy out of the bowl, and if confronted, they'll just say that it's not illegal. Or for the news example, you'll see the guy who killed an intruder, but if you listen to the way he talks about it, it seemed less like self-defense and more like he'd always wanted to kill somebody and managed to find a way to do it "legally".

Trump is almost certainly a psychopath. He doesn't have a conscience, and so it is natural for him to think that he should be allowed to do whatever he wants, as long as he doesn't suffer any consequences. He wants to kill people with nuclear weapons, and so he'll likely figure out a way to start a war just so that he can legally do so. And if that doesn't work, then he'll settle for this kind of shit. Just like a little shitstain future serial killer child who starts fires to see what he can get away with.

He's so transparent. It's still difficult for me to fathom that even a single other person, outside of his family and inner circle, voted for Trump in the last election.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I remember reading after Trump's first term about how Bill Barr would have to dangle death row inmates he could put to death in front of him like dangling keys in front of a baby to keep Trump focused, listening, and on task.

You're absolutely correct, he's absolutely obsessed with harming others.

[–] paperazzi@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There are lots of psychopaths in a population of 350 million who can entirely relate to and feel excited by having one of their own as a leader.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I'd have to go back and look at what it means to be a psychopath, but I think there's no reason that a psychopath would specifically feel an affinity towards other psychopaths. If anything, they probably feel competition towards other psychopaths. There are exceptions to everything, but you know for example, most serial killers work alone.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 17 points 5 days ago

Remember his excitement when he got to play wroom-wroom with the big car?

It's like that, I reckon. He knows there's this Big Bad Button that "only the most powerful man gets to press" but that - to his confusion and consternation - none of them ever did. Now he's that man, and by God, he's going to find a way to Press That Button.

If the adult diapers weren't hint enough, he's basically a baby in a room full of bottled nitroglycerine.

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[–] metoosalem@feddit.org 29 points 5 days ago

It’s a great distraction from the Epstein files innit?

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 19 points 5 days ago (3 children)

He just wants to see one. Let him. And when he asks to stand outside the observation bunker without eye protection, let him do that, too.

[–] REDACTED 7 points 5 days ago

Let him

This sets a precedent. Putin already said he will begin testing nuclear weapons if Trump does, so this isn't just some noise, it's bringing us towards darker times.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Give him the presidential binoculars, so he misses nothing!

[–] Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

He won't need to bother applying the orange tan after that level of exposure

[–] SavinDWhales@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

"You are, without doubt, the worst President I've ever heard of."

...

"But you HAVE heard of me!"

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"Seems like something that would piss off lots of libs. Also I have more nukes than anyone which makes me the most powerful."

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Probably watched House of Dynamite on Netflix and saw it as something to aspire to.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's exactly this. Him and/or people in his cabinet.

The administration literally put out a statement saying that the portrayal of our defensive capabilities in the movie are inaccurate.

They just couldn't not comment. Like just shut the fuck up, it's a movie, it's not real. You don't need to comment on it goddamn. They are so fucking fragile.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I don’t believe he has the cognitive capacity to sit through a full film.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 days ago

Its happened recently when Escape From Alcatraz re-aired and he developed a fixation on reopening the prison there

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Because North Korea did it and anything a dictator does he wants to do to.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

He desperately wants to say "We have the greatest nuclear tests, people come to me with tears in their eyes and thank me for all the nuclear tests!"

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Nowadays, you can open a dictionary on a random page and put your finger on any word on that page. Now take the headline "Trump is very confused about X" and substitute the X with the chosen word.

You'll probably find loads of sources to support that headline.

[–] rockettaco37@rt37.nu 12 points 5 days ago

He's such a fucking idiot...

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 13 points 5 days ago

Trump is probably nettled about Russia’s claim to have tested a long-range, nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik

Let me tell you a little story about an American missile called the "snark."

The name was the sort of joke that weapons engineers like to make. It was supposed to navigate itself autonomously to its target in the Soviet Union by watching the stars. It did not have horizontal stabilizers, and flew itself pointed in a weird nose-up attitude the entire way. Once it arrived at its destination, it was supposed to detach the warhead and then pull up violently in order not to get in the warhead's way, which caused it to break apart in flight. They said with a straight face that the falling debris would help to confuse enemy radar, as if this had been a purposeful design element rather than something that they weren't bothering to fix.

It did not do its navigation very well. One of the strategic bomber pilots was quoted as saying that he felt a hell of a lot better about flying his bomber knowing that the plan was for a bunch of these things to be wandering aimlessly above Asia and distracting everyone's attention from what his bomber was up to.

Anyway, they tried it in about 1961, and it sucked so they stopped. And I think the US in 1961 was in a lot better position than modern Russia to do these kinds of things effectively.

Just a little story to distract everyone from the horror of Trump and what he is doing

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

He is a man with penis envy, that's why. Putin, another man with penis envy, tested a nuclear torpedo and Taco felt even more emasculated.

[–] ultranaut@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

He is going to try nuking a hurricane again.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 days ago

Because him, or someone in his cabinet, watched "A House of Dynamite" and it made them all horny for nuclear war.

[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I know why…

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 5 days ago

The censoring just rage bait, aye?

[–] drdalek@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 days ago

I swear, they think the same shit that worked 80 years ago, in regards to show of force, is just bang up to stuff in the modern age.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

That's not the only point he is confused about, actually. And not only about the "why".

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

The government is shut down and the Epstein files are secure. Looks like he is winning to me. I can only hope this all spectacularly backfires.

[–] monogram@feddit.nl 5 points 5 days ago

Politics are overrun by aging rich pensioners.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The pathetic excuse for a president is confused.

FTFY

[–] lauha@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Real headline is "Trump is confused", although it not a news, just slow news day filler

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 2 points 5 days ago

Cancer causing particles will be looking for the libs only. That's how it works right?

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 5 days ago

The only reason is to give tax dollars to private military contractors. He knows this.

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