Tag: nuclear war

Daily Life, Government, Politics

Who Has The Biscuit?

As I watched the President give an address from the Oval Office last night, I had a thought. Where is the biscuit? Hear me out… If you’re not aware, the president carries a laminated card with him at all times called the biscuit. The biscuit is a card that has all the authentication codes required for a nuclear response should we come under attack. As you can imagine, it’s kind of a big deal to ensure the president has that card with him always. There’s a military officer within physical reach of the president 24/7 who carries the nuclear “football”. The football is a briefcase containing laminated sheets of potential responses to an attack and the steps needed to carry it out. A menu of sorts. Clearly the most consequential action a president can take.

For the entirety of his presidency Biden’s detractors have made fun of, or at least made reference to, his age and lack of mental acuity. Captain Applesauce, Pudding Brain, the ice cream president, etc… Watching the Oval Office address last night it was abundantly clear that the man is in trouble from a health perspective. Mumbling, loud swallowing, difficulty reading the teleprompter, and a clear inability to modulate his voice. He drifts from low and hard to hear to loud with sudden verbal emphasis in odd places. There’s something wrong. Add to that his obvious moments of confusion when he’s out and about with every staff member holding their collective breath when he has to navigate stairs or cross a large open space – he’s an elderly adult with Parkinsons and some level of related dementia.

Whatever. All we have to do is coast for six more months and someone with at least some level of mental acuity will be in charge, right? Here’s my thought experiment. There’s been a number of campaign activities lately in which staff members had to hand the president cash and instruct him how/who to tip during the staged visit. He has to be constantly redirected as to where he’s supposed to be looking and interacting with. What makes you think he’s able to dress each morning and ensure he has the biscuit with him before he leaves the private residence? What would happen if, god forbid, an incident happened and he needed to produce the biscuit and make launch decisions in response to an attack?

It’s happened before. Buzz Patterson carried the nuclear football for Clinton and wrote about that time in his book. He shared that during a routine check, it came out that Clinton had “misplaced” the launch codes. Obviously it’s a big deal as new codes need to be created and distributed to every nuclear launch platform – planes, submarines, and land based launchers. They never found the card with the codes. Clinton had all his mental faculties, he just had his mind on… well other things.

I wonder how often they check to see that the president has the biscuit? The person carrying the nuclear football is literally feet away from the president at all times. He/she sees everything that happens and clearly is the single best person to make a judgement call about the presidents fitness for office. I think there’s an interesting question around this. As a military officer (there’s one from each branch of service that rotate carrying the football) what legal obligation do they have to say something about the fitness of their superior officer to continue to serve? Who and how would they report that to?

It’s one thing from a political perspective for presidential aids and staff to ignore or cover for a president in decline. It’s entirely another thing for a group of senior military officers to ignore what they see. I wonder, do they feel the president is fully capable of continuing in his role or are they being quiet for career security? It would obviously be career suicide to say something. In reading Buzz Pattersons book it’s clear that these officers take their duty very seriously. I can’t imagine what goes through their minds each day they interact with the president.

It’s all terribly frightening if you think about it. The president has six minutes from a confirmed nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile launch towards the US to make a decision. I guess we’ll rely on Dr. Jill to fill in for the next six months.

Anyway, have a happy Thursday!

Government, Politics

Remember The Doomsday Clock?

I’m old enough to remember practicing ‘duck and cover’ drills in elementary school. I’m not sure how diving under my desk with my hands over my head was going to protect me from a nuclear blast, but I was ready. We all knew about the Doomsday Clock that had been created in 1947 in the aftermath of the manhattan project. The closer the hands got to midnight, the closer we were to all out nuclear war and global armageddon. The hands have been moved forward and backwards 25 times since its creation. The hands are currently the closest to midnight they’ve ever been. The clock was set to 90 seconds last year. That’s an even more dire risk assessment than during the Cold War. I don’t give the clock much credence (they now include global warming in the calculation), but it is a proxy for the current world-wide unrest. Thinking about the Doomsday Clock made me change my mind about our current political crisis.

It hasn’t been a secret that Biden is not running the country. It’s not clear who the final decision maker is or even if there is one. Perhaps everything is run by committee. Realistically I don’t think it matters who the democratic candidate is. Biden, Harris, Newsom, etc… if they win nothing changes. The same committee will still be running the country. Up until yesterday’s NATO press conference I was content to keep Biden in the running as I think he’s the best chance Trump has to win. Not that I think Trump is a great choice, but he’d be lightyears better than the current administration. But listening to the NATO speeches about global expansion and Biden’s disastrous big boy press conference, I believe for the safety of the country the president needs to be removed from office.

As I have been saying for a long time, the president clearly has Parkinsons and some level of dementia. Up until the campaign started in ernest, they’ve managed to mostly keep him out of sight and the press was happy to play along. Watching the press conference it was even more clear for me that the man is unable to maintain a train of thought, forgets names, and is word searching. The disease is progressing rapidly and even if he were to win (which is not out of the question), I guarantee that he’d have to be removed from office within six months.

I was an RN on a neuro floor for years and spent plenty of time with Parkinson’s patients. Several of the lesser known side effects of the disease are paranoia and hallucinations. That’s a scary thought. The leader of the free world, the man with the nuclear codes, might be experiencing wild mood swings and paranoia stemming from an inability to distinguish between reality and hallucinations. If you watched the press conference, towards the end he had a weird shouting outburst after randomly talking about guns. That’s the Parkinsons in action. Who knows what else will set him off when he’s behind closed doors?

I’d like to believe there’s enough people and systems in place that Biden can’t just willy nilly start launching missiles, or order a carrier strike group to provoke China, but I don’t have a lot of faith in this administration. I think the real worry is that the rest of the world sees with crystal clear clarity that the president is incapacitated. That increases the odds of bad actors out there doing something serious in an already unstable world. I absolutely do not trust this administration to make smart decisions and keep from starting WWIII. I think everyone from Iran, China, North Korea, to Islamic sleeper cells in our country are currently evaluating making a move now prior to the election. We’re in a pretty vulnerable and frightening spot at the moment.

I never thought I’d say this, but at this moment I’d rather have Biden step down (or be removed) and have Harris as president for the next six months. I don’t think she’d be any more competent than the dementia patient, but at least she wouldn’t be suffering from hallucinations. As long as she can keep from cackling she’d at least be able to read the teleprompter and “look” semi-presidential. That might be enough to keep the world at status quo.

My god, how did we get to this place? The cabal, the committee, whoever’s been running things, are some truly evil people. People who are willing to put the country and the world at risk so they can maintain power and keep the military industrial complex running. They’ve been happy to keep an actual dementia patient propped up as a figurehead so they can achieve their goals. It’s insane when you think about it.

So even though removing Biden reduces Trumps chances to 50/50 at best, I still think it’s the right thing to do. We’re at a scary inflection point.

I think the Doomsday Clock is closer to 30 seconds now.