In an article in yesterday's New York Times the editorial board imagines America on November 9 and poses a question for the future: "In 2016 we were closer than ever to electing an ignorant and reckless tyrant — what did you do to stop him?"
This question is one that I've been asking myself - at first in the future tense, currently in the present tense - since last June when Donald Trump mind-bogglingly won the Republican primary race over 17 other opponents, every one of whom would have been a saner choice for a Presidential candidate.
And whatever we wake up to in this country on November 9, I want to be able to tell myself that, however effective or ineffective my own tiny grain-of-sand effort has been in the vastness of this election, I did what I could to keep Donald Trump's greedy, groping, out-of-control, hatred-sowing, crazy hands off our country.
This question is one that I've been asking myself - at first in the future tense, currently in the present tense - since last June when Donald Trump mind-bogglingly won the Republican primary race over 17 other opponents, every one of whom would have been a saner choice for a Presidential candidate.
And whatever we wake up to in this country on November 9, I want to be able to tell myself that, however effective or ineffective my own tiny grain-of-sand effort has been in the vastness of this election, I did what I could to keep Donald Trump's greedy, groping, out-of-control, hatred-sowing, crazy hands off our country.
| To this end I've spent almost every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from the middle of September to the beginning of November canvassing door-to-door for Hillary Clinton. |  |
I've been doing this not because I love walking up and down the street knocking on strangers' doors - I don't love doing it, in fact it makes me anxious, that is to say, more anxious than I usually am - but because I love my country. And I love my children. And my grand children. And my friends. And their children. And my planet. And so I make myself do it.
I've recruited friends to volunteer for Hillary Clinton. I've given the Hillary campaign money. I seek to hearten fellow Hillary supporters or people who, rightly so, just fear Trump,
I've recruited friends to volunteer for Hillary Clinton. I've given the Hillary campaign money. I seek to hearten fellow Hillary supporters or people who, rightly so, just fear Trump,
| ...with a sign in my yard, |  |
 | ...and a sticker on my car. |
But the most important thing I can do, the most important thing all of us can do, in truth the one and only meaningful thing any of us can do is to stop Trump is to use the power of our vote. This I've already done.
But now I'm doing one more thing. I'm writing this post, pleading my case to every American who reads this against using your vote to give the most powerful office on the planet
But now I'm doing one more thing. I'm writing this post, pleading my case to every American who reads this against using your vote to give the most powerful office on the planet
| to this man. |  |
President Obama recently said that entering the Oval Office doesn't change a person. Rather it amplifies who one is, magnifies who one is, shows who one is.
The bigotry and racism Donald Trump has preached since he's held the national stage has promoted the rise in our schools of a phenomenon which is being called The Trump Effect. Children and teen-agers are using Trump's words - called "Trump Talk" - to harass and bully Hispanic, Muslim, and African American children, children of color in general. "Build That Wall!", " and "Trump is gonna throw your butt over that wall!" have become popular taunts against Hispanic youngsters, while Muslim children are accused by their classmates of being terrorists or ISIS and taunted that they're going to be banned. An article in Rolling Stone entitled "The Trump Effect: How Hateful Rhetoric Is Affecting America's Children" observed that "It's almost like children are learning new ways to hurt each other."
But whatever harm Donald Trump has done and would continue to do to our children, our society, our economy, our country's standing in the world, none of that compares to the danger we will be in if Donald Trump gets his hands on our nuclear weapons. His cavalier prattle about "blowing them out of the water", about how he might use nuclear weapons, about asking why we make them if we wouldn't use them, about not ruling out using nukes (as he likes to call them) even on Europe, all that is far too much loose, irresponsible talk about nuclear weapons, talk that should never have been tossed about by anyone in a potential position to use those weapons, least of all a candidate for President of the United States.
As President Obama also recently said, when a person makes threats, what will happen when he has the power to carry out those threats?
Consider this: The news came out yesterday that Donald Trump’s staff took his access to his Twitter account away from him, and he let them because even he knows he can’t control himself.
What if it was our nuclear arsenal his impulsive fingers were hovering over? What if this man, who’s talked about putting together a superPAC after the election to exact vengeance on his enemies, woke up at 3 am seething with rage over some slight real or imagined perpetrated against him by a foreign country? No one could stop him from starting a nuclear attack, not Congress, not the Supreme Court, not the whole U.S. military, not unless every member of every team at every nuclear launch site in the country mutinied.
When the United States dropped hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 we were the only country on the planet who possessed such weapons of mass destruction. This is no longer true. There are over 16,000 nuclear bombs possessed by 9 countries.
And only 10 super-nuke warheads would be sufficient to destroy the planet.
And if there’s a nuclear war, then nothing else will matter, not what the Supreme Court rules, not jobs, not the infrastructure, not social justice, not our religious beliefs or partisan politics or opinions on anything.
If there’s a nuclear war then it’s game over.
The bigotry and racism Donald Trump has preached since he's held the national stage has promoted the rise in our schools of a phenomenon which is being called The Trump Effect. Children and teen-agers are using Trump's words - called "Trump Talk" - to harass and bully Hispanic, Muslim, and African American children, children of color in general. "Build That Wall!", " and "Trump is gonna throw your butt over that wall!" have become popular taunts against Hispanic youngsters, while Muslim children are accused by their classmates of being terrorists or ISIS and taunted that they're going to be banned. An article in Rolling Stone entitled "The Trump Effect: How Hateful Rhetoric Is Affecting America's Children" observed that "It's almost like children are learning new ways to hurt each other."
But whatever harm Donald Trump has done and would continue to do to our children, our society, our economy, our country's standing in the world, none of that compares to the danger we will be in if Donald Trump gets his hands on our nuclear weapons. His cavalier prattle about "blowing them out of the water", about how he might use nuclear weapons, about asking why we make them if we wouldn't use them, about not ruling out using nukes (as he likes to call them) even on Europe, all that is far too much loose, irresponsible talk about nuclear weapons, talk that should never have been tossed about by anyone in a potential position to use those weapons, least of all a candidate for President of the United States.
As President Obama also recently said, when a person makes threats, what will happen when he has the power to carry out those threats?
Consider this: The news came out yesterday that Donald Trump’s staff took his access to his Twitter account away from him, and he let them because even he knows he can’t control himself.
What if it was our nuclear arsenal his impulsive fingers were hovering over? What if this man, who’s talked about putting together a superPAC after the election to exact vengeance on his enemies, woke up at 3 am seething with rage over some slight real or imagined perpetrated against him by a foreign country? No one could stop him from starting a nuclear attack, not Congress, not the Supreme Court, not the whole U.S. military, not unless every member of every team at every nuclear launch site in the country mutinied.
When the United States dropped hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 we were the only country on the planet who possessed such weapons of mass destruction. This is no longer true. There are over 16,000 nuclear bombs possessed by 9 countries.
And only 10 super-nuke warheads would be sufficient to destroy the planet.
And if there’s a nuclear war, then nothing else will matter, not what the Supreme Court rules, not jobs, not the infrastructure, not social justice, not our religious beliefs or partisan politics or opinions on anything.
If there’s a nuclear war then it’s game over.
| It’s game over not only because of the destruction, |  |
...but because of the residual radioactive fallout that would poison the air and subsequently surviving plants, animals and humans.
Neither radiation sickness nor starvation are good ways to die.
Please use your power tomorrow to stop Donald Trump.
Neither radiation sickness nor starvation are good ways to die.
Please use your power tomorrow to stop Donald Trump.
References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/opinion/sunday/imagining-america-on-nov-9.html?ribbon-ad-idx=7&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-donald-trump-aides-took-away-candidates-twitter-access/
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-trump-effect-how-hateful-rhetoric-is-affecting-children-w448515
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/11/06/the-frightening-effect-of-trump-talk-on-americas-schools/
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-many-super-nukes-it-would-take-to-destroy-the-world-2014-12
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/opinion/sunday/imagining-america-on-nov-9.html?ribbon-ad-idx=7&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-donald-trump-aides-took-away-candidates-twitter-access/
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-trump-effect-how-hateful-rhetoric-is-affecting-children-w448515
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/11/06/the-frightening-effect-of-trump-talk-on-americas-schools/
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-many-super-nukes-it-would-take-to-destroy-the-world-2014-12
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