@atomicanalyst.bsky.social
Editor/Co-author, “Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940” • Nonresident Senior Fellow, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists • Nuclear weapons expert (history, policy, costs, accidents) and tracker of the nuclear “Football.”
The White House Military Office Army aide is on “Football” duty for Emperor Trump’s latest taxpayer-funded excursion to his Mar-a-Lago Club. The ~45-pound satchel follows Trump 24/7, enabling him alone to authorize the use of any of our ~1,770 deployed nuclear weapons—up to 900 on alert—at any time.
See also:
Absolutely not:
Incoming! (@gregkoblentz.bsky.social, @jaimeyassif.bsky.social, @walberque.bsky.social)
That is ... more suggestive (or, at least, more likely to get a second look). But hey, I'm not an algorithm.
Thanks. Someone found it online for free (at the end of the list in the link):
Thank you! There it is, at the bottom of the page. Enjoy, @petersagal.bsky.social.
Well worth watching if you can track it down (it looks like American Experience took it down in mid-2025, probably when its broadcast rights expired). Maybe someone you know at WTTW has a copy?
My father was a native Angeleno. He was born in 1931, but he heard about the flood from his parents.
Yes, it's the first 10 or so minutes (of a 52ish-minute episode).
I checked several PBS direct links and they either say it's not available or just link to the trailer or, as I posted, the first 10 or so minutes. And YouTube only has selected clips: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis....
Perhaps PBS no longer has the rights to stream it.
Three years ago American Experience on PBS broadcast a remarkable documentary about this disaster, "Flood in the Desert." It doesn't seem to be fully available online anymore, but you can watch the first 10 minutes here:
A timely reminder to regularly clean your clothes dryer’s lint trap and vent to maintain its efficiency and reduce the risk of fires.
“OPLAN 8010-12 also ’emphasizes escalation control designed to end hostilities and resolve the conflict at the lowest practicable level’ by developing ’readily executable and adaptively planned response options to de-escalate, defend against, or defeat hostile adversary actions.’”
“The April 2019 change refocused the plan toward ’great power competition,’ incorporated a new cyber plan, and reportedly blurred the line between nuclear and conventional attacks by ’fully incorporat[ing] non-nuclear weapons as an equal player.’”
“The current strategic nuclear war plan—OPLAN 8010-12—consists of ’a family of plans’ directed against four identified adversaries: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Known as ’Strategic Deterrence and Force Employment,’ OPLAN 8010-12 first entered into effect in July 2012 ....”
NEW in @thebulletin.org: “United States Nuclear Weapons, 2026,” the latest Nuclear Notebook by the team at @scientistsorg.bsky.social, reports total stockpile size unchanged at 3,700 bombs and warheads (1,770 deployed) as multiple costly upgrade programs proceed. www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
In my suburban Chicago neighborhood, it was sunny and 71F on Monday. Yesterday was in the mid-30s, with rain turning to sleet/snow in the afternoon. The forecast for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday calls for temps to fall well below freezing. Some seasonal volatility is normal, but these swings are …
Emperor Nero for the 21st century.
Here’s a thread on that:
No need to screenshot the bad place, @elizlanders.bsky.social is here.
I've been using that for a few weeks now. Seemed appropriate given his increasingly imperial behavior.
Technically he isn't. No president has access to or issues the coded messages allowing the launch of our nuclear weapons. Those are controlled by the military. To authorize a launch, the president need only verify his identity with a secret alphanumeric code and designate which war plan to execute.
I'm good!
The White House Military Office Marine Corps aide was on “Football” duty for Emperor Trump’s departure for Reading, OH, and Hebron, KY. The ~45-pound satchel accompanies Trump 24/7, enabling him alone to authorize the use of any of our ~1,770 deployed nuclear weapons—up to 900 on alert—at any time.
OTD 15 yrs ago, the massive Tōhoku earthquake in Japan (magnitude 9-9.1) triggered a 15-meter tsunami that killed 19,747 people, injured 6,242, and left 2,556 missing. It also swamped and ultimately led to the meltdown and total destruction of three of the six Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant reactors.
Here is a look at the Patrick Henry in dry dock that gives a better sense of its massive size (more than 381 feet long and 33 feet across at its widest point). The Polaris A-1 submarine-launched ballistic missile was 28 feet tall and 54 inches in diameter. The submarine was operational from 1960-84.
65 years ago today, the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) loaded Polaris SLBMs into the USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) at the new “replenishment anchorage” in Holy Loch, Scotland. The first sub based at Holy Loch, it carried 16 SLBMs, each originally armed with one W47 warhead (600 kt or 1.2 Mt).
Walter Gregg, Sr.—World War II Army paratrooper, retired railroad conductor (he worked for 41 years for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad), father, grandfather, and atomic bomb accident survivor—died in 2013 at age 92 in Florence, South Carolina.
Another report, in the August 18, 1960, edition of the Florence Morning News, said a federal judge ordered the USAF to pay Gregg and his family $54,081.75 in damages for the accident that destroyed their home and injured everyone, noting they had rejected a settlement offer of $43,344.73 in 1958.
The US Air Force refused to compensate Gregg for his losses, so “Gregg eventually sued and was awarded $36,000. ... That wasn’t enough to rebuild the house, much less replace the possessions lost or stolen in the aftermath, [daughter Helen Gregg] Holladay said. ‘My daddy resented it all his life.’”