Trump Says U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Must Be Greatly Expanded

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Bloomberg

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. should enlarge its nuclear arsenal, an apparent reversal of a decades-long reduction of the nation’s atomic weaponry that came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country’s arsenal should also be strengthened.

"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to it senses regarding nukes," Trump said in a Twitter post.

Putin said in a speech earlier on Thursday that his country should also bolster its nuclear forces: "We need to enhance the combat capability of strategic nuclear forces, primarily by strengthening missile complexes that will be guaranteed to penetrate existing and future missile defense systems," he said.
...
President Barack Obama has both reduced the U.S. nuclear arsenal, in an agreement early in his presidency with Russia, and sought to modernize it to replace thousands of bombs and missiles. His modernization plan -- which the Arms Control Association said would cost as much as $1 trillion over 30 years -- has come under criticism from proponents of denuclearization, who warn it may prompt a new arms race with Russia and China.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-22/trump-says-u-s-nuclear-arsenal-must-be-greatly-expanded

---

So, lots more weapons, and profits for the Military-Industrial Complex (lots on that in the Bloomberg story), while the 2 countries with the huge arsenals decide to expand them even more - despite saying they trust each other and are BFFs.

What worries me is that "coming to its senses regarding nukes" for Trump could easily mean "starting to use them".

[femmocrat]

1. Thanks, Deplorables.

Now are you paying attention to us?

[Wounded Bear]

11. Most of the deplorables aren't in the high priority target areas...

like us "coastal elite" liberals. They probably think they're safe from nukes.

[Generator]

18. So our best hope is nuclear fallout?

I know that's disgusting. But this is where we are and he's not even in there yet. Talking about using nuclear power. The world has lost it's mind. AGAIN. HELP.

[Wounded Bear]

20. Seems so...

and I'm in the US major city closest to NKorea, Seattle. So when he develops his missiles, I'll be in range.

[cstanleytech]

23. Thats assuming Lil Kim can get his missile up as he seems to have trouble at times with it.

[lastlib]

37. I think the Midwest would be targeted as much as the coasts....

Missouri has a large number of ballistic-missile silos, as well as being home to the B-2 bombers and other strategic aircraft. Don't know much about the deep south, but a huge number of the deplorables between the Rockies and the Appalachians ARE going to be in the nuclear bullseye.

[cstanleytech]

22. To be honest I cant blame them as much for this as both China and Russia are in an expansionist

phase atm and do pose as potential threats.
Thats simply reality, I wish it wasnt but it is.

[canetoad]

2. I've been thinking

That DFT's jobs plan is to start a few wars and put all the coal miners to work in armaments plants. Make Halliburton great again.

[tinrobot]

3. Does he also advocate flooding the market with heroin to reduce opiate addiction?

What a stupid, stupid man.

This is scaring me.

[Botany]

4. We have about 7,100 thermonuclear weapons and that is enough to kill off the world's population ..

.... many times over. We don't need anymore.

Trump might very well get us all killed. He really is a mad man.

100 H bombs would all but end human life on earth. And not only would many living things be
killed by the blasts, radiation sicknesses, and the loss of most of all of the world's crops and livestock
but some of the radionuclides would reach the world's ocean and kill off the plankton that produces
about 1/2 of the world's oxygen.

[cstanleytech]

24. Odd, you say 7,100 wiki says its 4,500 but

http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/nuclear-arsenals/ says 6,970.

[Botany]

26. I got it from this place

http://www.globalzero.org/blog/how-many-nukes-would-it-take-render-earth-uninhabitable

Although under Obama the # of nuclear weapons we have and the other nations have has
gone down a lot.

[cstanleytech]

34. Ahhh, well no offense but I think I'll go with http://www.icanw.org/ about the numbers

though they do close to the other site that you mentioned.

[Jacob Boehme]

5. Agent Orange is truly delusional!

His quote: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to it senses regarding nukes..." is absurd beyond all comprehension because the old maxim from the 1960's is still true: Fighting for Peace Is Like Fucking for Chastity.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Looks like Nuclear War is trending

Please somebody, for the love of humanity,
disconnect that atomic 'football'.

[lastlib]

7. Has he ever heard the word "TREATY"??!?

We have signed a few of them--even gotten the Senate to ratify a few. Is this human shitstain going to unilaterally abrogate those treaties? Does he have a f*gging CLUE what he is subjecting humanity to??!?

[Wounded Bear]

13. Just another piece of paper....

He doesn't honor business contracts. Why should he give a shit about treaties?

[cstanleytech]

25. And what treaty are you specifically referring to?

Reason I asked is I checked but as far as I could tell there arent any Trump would be breaking if he actually goes through with updating the nuclear arsenal of the US unless of course he deploys them into orbit which is a no no and would violate a treaty.

[lastlib]

36. If he adds new weapons, I would suspect,,,

(a priori, albeit) that it would be a violation of SALT I and II (and maybe START as well). Can't cite specific provisions, and I don't know if his buddy Vlad would call him on it, but I sure as hell would!

[cstanleytech]

39. The US never ratified Salt 2

and 1 addressed other areas like any new missile couldnt exceed 5% of the performance of past missiles in the arsenal.

[mopinko]

28. he has no clue. the peaceful transfer of power is about more than

the keys to the white house, you idiot. you dont get to come in and just rearrange the laws and treaties of this county to suit your idiot followers.

he's gonna be so upset when he finds out there is no magic wand included.

[tclambert]

33. Treaties? Ah, he can just call it void and "pffft" it's gone. Isn't that how it works?

He has done that with contracts many times, refusing to pay what he agreed to. And those are contracts he signed his own self. Surely, you don't expect him to honor a treaty signed by somebody else.

[C_U_L8R]

8. And.... if that wasn't bad enough

look who will be in charge of our nuclear arsenal...
Rick Fucking-Ooops Perry !!! This is insane.

[Snotcicles]

9. Thats those tiny hands talkin. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. And with Rick Perry in charge of DOE, what could go wrong? NT

[C Moon]

12. And now watch as the deficit grows under Republican control, once again.

They're damn good at spending other people's money, with no intent of paying back.

[Wounded Bear]

14. Deficits don't matter...

when Repubs are in charge.

[world wide wally]

15. Have to reward those defense contractors somehow

[LanternWaste]

16. He is the WW1 cavalry officer who believed horses would win every war.

He is the WW1 cavalry officer who believed horses would win every war in the face of industrialism. Except in this case, the horses can blow up the good and the bad. Or the British officer in the colonies who thought marching his battalion in a straight line through the woods was the safest route to to town.

Thirty years in, and the traditional strategists still believe a conventional war or nuclear threat will defeat global insurgencies. Bless their idiot hearts.

[titaniumsalute]

17. I'm not that worried about using them...

I think it is more that Trump and Putin hopped on the phone and told each other "Hey we'll both profit from building more bumbs and ICBS. Let's DO THIS!!"

[Generator]

19. Yep our best hope is that those buddies

will just steal us blind and not nuke the planet. Good times.

[titaniumsalute]

27. Yeah really. Either way WE fucking lose

[moondust]

21. Trump asks why US can't use nukes

"Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked at one point if we had them why can't we use them," Scarborough said on his "Morning Joe" program.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-why-us-cant-use-nukes-msnbcs-joe-scarborough-reports.html

Maybe he gets a sinister ego boost from scaring the shit out of people, from dangling that kind of super power over people. Like an evil clown in a horror movie.

[Judi Lynn]

29. What's the use of having power if he doesn't abuse it?

A president like Trump would enjoy going full bull goose looney, send people running for cover all over the world. If the American people didn't want him to do that, they would have already retired the electoral voting system, which he managed with such "sophistication."

[BumRushDaShow]

30. I posted elsewhere that the Doomsday Clock needs to be moved to

30 seconds before midnight.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Even Reagan never increased the number by more than 500 a year, and decreased it overall

during his term (just): http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2968/066004008

Since 1965, the number of American nuclear weapons has basically been decreasing - apart from a bit of an increase in Nixon's later years. And now Trump wants to "greatly strengthen and expand" it.

And I bet some Republican will call this "infrastructure spending".

[Vinca]

32. So over decades we have reduced the nuclear arsenal and in one frivolous tweet

all efforts to make the world safer evaporate. We're in deep trouble, people.

[pbmus]

35. Certifiable insanity. That is exactly opposite of what this world needs..

[jpak]

38. I remember the Twilight Zone episode - The Shelter

Be Afraid.

[pfitz59]

40. The twittering fool strikes again!

We don't need no stinking State Department, lets negotiate the end of the world in 140 characters or less....

[inanna]

41. I sense a full blown panic attack coming on.