In his inimitable style–crude, rude, and hostile–Donald Trump expressed the hope that Russia had hacked the emails on Hillary Clinton’s server.
Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hopes Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails have fallen into the hands of Russian hackers.
“If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do,” Trump said at a press conference at his resort in Doral, Florida.
The Republican presidential nominee was referring to the widely held suspicion that Russia is responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee’s servers, resulting in the leak of tens of thousands of emails just days before the party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia.
Trump said that he hoped the hackers had also accessed Clinton’s private email servers. “They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted.”
Trump then addressed the rogue nation directly, saying “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
By actively hoping that American servers were hacked by another nation, Trump broke an unwritten but cardinal rule of American public office: You don’t root against the United States, even when your political opponent is in power.
David Frum on Trump and Putin, best buddies.
Is Donald Trump the Manchurian Candidate?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We are being bombarded by election politics daily. I feel abused reading your posts on the elections lately. I don’t read a nonpartisan commentary of what is going on.
I have learned a lot from your commentary on education but I might opt out of reading your blog for a while until the elections are over.
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I appreciate the information and the political support I find here. It is incumbent upon educators to pay close attention and to have open discussion on politics, always, and particularly in this unique election season. Please continue, Diane, to send us info as with Arthur Camins essays, and others who are so well versed in the issues.
As you know, I have been a rabid supporter of Bernie, and have been very critical of Hillary on this blog, but I am a pragmatist and I recognize the essence of our system and the need to fight against Trump who is not a person who should be leading our country.Hillary is the only other viable candidate…i will vote for her.
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Politics is an integral part of education
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” T.J.
This is a free exchange of Ideas many of which Diane disagrees with. And she voices her opposition ,sometimes in a back and fourth .
The political nature of the war on Public Schools is undeniable . One can hardly discuss education today without discussing its relation to politics” Discussing who bennifits and who losses and who is pulling the strings.
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The owner of this blog does not live or think in a silo. I am grateful for these posts.
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At least the people who write in this blog are serious and express themselves with extended thoughts. I went to the Atlantic article and noted that most of the comments were more like tweets. There were hundreds of them. Here, people are generally respectful, if passionate. Elsewhere, it seems c
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As most of us did, I just watched the speeches at the Convention…and am blown away with the end. Obama was masterful, and then the hugging of Hillary and Barak, who were fierce enemies only a few years ago, made me mellow to realize that coming together can happen, must happen.
But to hear Bloomberg, not educators favorite Mayor, take apart and thoroughly fillet, Trump, was fabulous. Now, let’s put Trump in an asylum or in prison for treason where he cannot urge world leaders to hack our government emails.
But most of all, my mellow state here as write, was the realization that I have lived to see the time when we have had an African American Prez, and a woman as potential next Prez, and an old Jewish Senator from Vermont by way of Brooklyn, who changed the course of the Dem party and hopefully, of the country. Amazing. Such rich history.
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I think the more important question is why did HRC delete 30,000 e-mails while being investigated. Why aren’t you asking those questions? I wonder what goodies were in those e-mails. I wonder why she deleted them so quickly after being investigated. It’s all so mysterious. What an upstanding person to lead our country! I think many of us aren’t buying what you’re selling.
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Like Diane and many others, I feel the pressure to vote for Hillary because of the alternative. But we cannot support her uncritically. I believe we have to keep her feet to the fire from the get-go, or she will stick to the bad habits of the DLC Democrats–you know, the guys who are trying to get rid of public education. Only if she knows we will make her life miserable will she do the right thing. (That’s why the Bernie faction is so crucial from here on out.)
Here’s yet another story to back me up:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/dnc-leak-shows-mechanics-of-a-slanted-campaign-w430814
The Clintons don’t support Democrats; they demand that Democrats support them. Wrong. (Not unlike our President btw)
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So do I, but that has little to do with the fact that Donald Trump has just shown once again, that he is unfit to be the President. As a Bernie supporter I would have loved to have had it all. But for a candidate for the highest position in the land to call on a foreign power to commit Espionage . Reminds me of another Republican President who committed Espionage threatening our democracy . He resigned before he could be impeached .
But right now we do not know if the Russians have or did anything .
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Steve Cohen . A very big fire. for at least the next four years
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Yes, it is a question. Consider it asked.
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I have deleted more than 30,000 emails over the years, all of them about foreign policy. Most of these are about Africa, specifically about a deposed prince who needs support to gain back his power. I think that many more have been deleted which have tried to sell me something.
Is it possible that investigators knew that we all delete emails? This would give them a sure-fire way to make Hillary look evil. None of us really know. What we do know is that millions have been spent looking for a smoking gun. So far we can barely find any warm tinder.
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I delete e-mails all the time, every day, becasue there’s only so much memory in my e-mail account and I see no reason to hang on to all the emails that flood my in-box. And keeping up with deleting the flood of e-mails that come in is not easy.
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Steve Cohen: I would like to know what leverage or pressure you think will work against an incumbent President Hillary Clinton given that nothing has worked against candidate Hillary Clinton to move her one micron to the left and keep her there? You know exactly what will happen for the next four years: “I need room to fight the evil GOP without you undermining me, you radical bastards” And then, “You have to support me in 2020. You don’t want Ted Cruzmonster to eat you, do you???”
I’ve already paid for and watched this movie for the last 8 years. And the 8 years Bill was in office.
Not going to fall for the same tricks this time. That’s insanity.
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Let’s not forget another tyrant has endorsed Trump and bad mouthed HRC. His name is Kim John-un of North Korea.
“North Korea has backed presumptive U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump, with a propaganda website praising him as ‘a prescient presidential candidate’ who can liberate Americans living under daily fear of nuclear attack by the North.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-trump-idUSKCN0YN35S
North Korea endorses ‘wise’ Donald Trump over ‘dull’ rival Hillary Clinton
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/north-korea-endorses-donald-trump-and-rejects-dull-hillary-clinton-a7057681.html
How could any loyal, patriotic, open minded American vote for a presidential candidate who has been endorsed by both Russia and North Korea’s leaders?
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Against my better judgment, a brief comment. You do know that Trump does and says outrageous things to get attention, right? And you know that by posting about it, you’re giving him just the attention he wants? Of course it’s your blog and you can post what you want, but these repetitive posts just speak to fear. My mother always taught me that if you ignore someone they’ll go away. I sure wish the media would give Trump a chance to do that.
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Yes, that’s true. But in a position of power, words have great impact. Far more than me yelling at my TV. I am concerned Trump has little impulse control over what he says. That may carry over to what he does.
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Yes, but people who oppose him already see that and see who he is. People who support him do so in large part because of his antics. So either way, by constantly splashing his antics in the spotlight, we’re just giving him power.
When I was in school the teachers who got our respect were the ones who handled pranks and outbursts calmly with a minimal amount of fuss (and a sense of humor was a plus). The ones we didn’t respect were the ones who made as much of a scene as the misbehaving kid.
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Incidentally, I should have ended that last comment with over and out. I have things to do and I wouldn’t want to be accused of hijacking the thread.
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The cowardly Republicans thus far have said little to castigate Trump’s actions. This repeated irresponsible behavior shows Trump’s lack of sound judgment. Trump crossed a line in Cleveland last week in his venal attacks on Hillary. Regardless of anyone’s views on Hillary, she did not deserve the character assassination of the Republicans. Just when Trump lowers the bar and you think it can’t get any lower, he manages to lower it more. He is a disgrace to his party and our country.
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Your point is taken, but ignoring outrageous things the Republican Presidential nominee says is not an option for the news media, and that’s a good thing.
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Dienne,
Do you really believe that if I ignore Trump, he will go away? If that were true, I would never write another word about him.
Unfortunately he might be our next president, and I fear for civil liberties, the environment, gun control, and international stability.
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Lloyd, maybe they know something you don’t. Hillary is actually more hawkish and dangerous that Trump. Trump wants to pull back and be more isolationist. Hillary is very aggressive in pursuing war, being the world’s policeman. These high-level politicians like Putin and Kim Jon have more information than we do. Hillary turned Libya into a chaotic nightmare and unleashed millions of refugees on Europe. Europe is now being systematically destroyed. (It’s in the news every day). Think about it!
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“Hillary turned Libya into a chaotic nightmare and unleashed millions of refugees on Europe.”
BS !!!!!
Hillary didn’t create an unstable Middle East. That was President G. W. Bush when he lied about WMDs and used that lie to invade Iraq and remove a dictator who was an enemy of Al Qaeda, not an ally. Saddam was not a U.S. ally either but he had been and then he switched to Russia — the real reason Bush went after Saddam.
There is no evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11. The attack on 9/11 was traced to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan where they had the support of the Taliban.
Then Bush’s administration horribly bungled the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan and left a mess for the Obama administration that included the global financial crises in 2007-08 that cost Trillions of lost dollars, 9 million Americans lost their jobs, and millions who lost their homes because of the lost jobs.
In addition. several investigations started and controlled by the GOP did not find HRC responsible for what happened in Libya.
http://benghazicommittee.com/benghazi-by-the-numbers/
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Honestly, Hillary did not cause instability in the Middle East. Really.
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John, what if Donald Trump is a certifiable sociopath? Do Hillary’s flaws justify putting a sociopath in office?
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John: “These high-level politicians like Putin and Kim Jon have more information than we do.” So our high-level politician, President Obama, is just so much chopped liver? Are you serious or are you a Trump plant?
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We are talking several different issues here.
Issue one relations with Russia Trump stumbled on to something .
But you can not be wrong all the time . Neo cons at State and Defense have been expanding NATO into the former Soviet Block and Soviet Union for decades .That is an aggressive policy that we would not tolerated. We risk reigniting the cold war..We would not tolerate it in reverse .This does not make Putin a good guy.
The fact that Nations have spy operations what a shocker. The fact that they would seek to influence outcomes in other countries affairs shocked again. The fact that an American Presidential candidate would encourage or take pleasure out of or conspire with a foreign Nation in espionage, borders on treason.
Lloyd is right destabilizing the region that’s on Bush
But Libya is a separate case . Arising out of the Arab spring What would you have done? A dictator who in the past downed an American Airliner and set off a bombing in Germany killing Americans is threatening to commit genocide. Do you stand by . Do you send American boys into harms way . Or do you take the measured actions that Obama took . You make that decision, because none of them were good options. Nor were the outcomes certain .
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Joel,
I think you have it wrong. The US and NATO have not sought members of the former Soviet bloc. They eagerly sought membership in NATO to protect them from being reconquered by Russia. NATO didn’t ask them to join. They clamored to join. I visited almost all of the Soviet subject nations. Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, they wanted out and they wanted a strong alliance with the West. When you have been under the boot for decades, it feels good to get out of it.
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Here is a list of NATO nations: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm
Poland, Hungary, Albania, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, sought NATO protection.
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The Hillary lovers can’t even read simple English now. Where did John say “Hillary created instability in the Middle East”? He said very clearly, “Hillary turned Libya into a chaotic nightmare . . .,” etc.
I realize that we’re in a state of complete insanity now, but at least argue what’s on the table, not a convenient strawman fantasy of it. The words are right there.
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I’ll post this link again in hoping against hope that one person here not already realizing that these political arguments have become two echo chambers that can’t or won’t even READ what others are saying, let alone actually stick to what’s been said will bother to look at it and reconsider what is happening in Latvia, the Ukraine, and so on. Putin might be a totalitarian bastard, but he’s not a madman, and the situation there has a lot to do with the United States (surprise!!!) trying to destabilize things and hamstring Russia, our basic foreign policy since 1917. The fondest wish of American imperialists and, now, corporatists is that Russia (and China) become wholly-owned subsidiaries of the United States and its biggest corporations. I shudder for the Cuban people once American capitalism comes back. Some there are old enough to recall the “good old days” of Batista and the American mafia. The Castro brothers, like Putin, may be totalitarians, but at least they’re Cuban totalitarians, not Americans sitting in some corporate board room or mafia meeting at a luxury hotel divvying up the spoils in Havana, etc.
The last time the United States fought a war to stop a totalitarian monster ended in 1945. Since then, it’s all been about $$ and American world hegemony. If you think what’s going on in Eastern Europe is about protecting the freedom-loving peoples of the region, you might want to take a closer look at who is in power in those countries and what their aims are for Jews, Russian-speaking minorities, etc. And who is funding them.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/03/23/john-pilger-why-hillary-clinton-is-more-dangerous-than-donald-trump/
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Diane,
I am sure your right that those nations sought to get out from under the boot . Russia was an economic basket case at the time in no condition to threaten anybody. The cold war was over Russia was no longer Communist . But we can vilify Putin and god knows he deserves it.If for nothing more than his dictatorial actions at home
But what about Yeltsin this article is about former Soviet Block nations
Georgia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union .,
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Joel, during the Cold War, the USSR was antagonistic to any expansion of NATO.
The Cold War is over, the USSR collapsed, and the satellite nations (captive nations) pleaded for admission to NATO, so as to protect themselves against re-occupation by Russia.
I traveled in almost every one of the captive nations in 1989-1991. They did not want to be subservient to the USSR and the KGB.
And they don’t want to be now.
We are NOT rekindling the cold war.
Putin is hoping to reassemble the USSR.
He is KGB through and through.
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Trump has made major blunders that question his ability to govern. He suggested NATO might be a negotiable organization. This is like a subordinate openly criticizing an executive in public. Never done. The opposition sees this as weakness to bypass the exec or exploit a split in the organization. Business 101 – never show weakness or expose conflict outside the team. Apparently, Trump U. didn’t teach Trump that. Putin will see that as an opening to roll into eastern Europe.
Now, Trump shows support for Russian military cybercrime to allow a foreign power to infiltrate and undermine the American election process. Trump basically gave overseas hackers a wink and nod to attack the opposition. All for his personal gain. Maybe we should start drinking vodka and call him Comrade Trump. I’m having a hard time understanding how Trump supporters and Republicans can defend the indefensible.
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Vale,
Trump is disaster, but we have been reigniting the cold war.
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No, Joel, I don’t agree. We have no interest in reigniting the cold war.
Putin sent troops into Georgia and into Ukraine. Even now, he has troops massed on the borders of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.
He will be very happy if Trump is elected, first, because they have a mutual admiration society, but above all, because Trump has made clear that he will not defend our NATO allies if Putin chooses to invade them.
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If we are willing to follow the Big Money, it isn’t hard to find that it is war-mongering (a massively lucrative weapons creation and sale) which is behind much political action. Cold Wars are much too…non-profitable.
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And Trump says he wants to increase military spending — by a lot while cutting taxes on the rich. The U.S. already spends more than any country on the planet, more than China by $500 billion plus, and China is in second place for its defense spending.
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-defense-budget-increase-2016-4
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My fear exactly. Putin is a cut throat opportunist. He will see Trump’s weakness as an opening. Trump is either a fool or there is more to those tax returns as George Will suggests. I can not believe the amateurish and dangerous aspect to Trump’s missteps on the world stage. I am flabbergasted he still has supporters like Ryan and Carson, supposedly smart people.
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Diane,
I guess we are entitled to disagree. It would seem that elected leader (for what that is worth} of the Ukraine who was allied with Russia was removed in a coup. A coup in which Neo Nazi elements participated . There is more than a little evidence to support the fact that we engineered that coup. Including the actions of our Ambassador during the coup. The Crimea region of the Ukraine has a substantial Russian speaking population. It borders Russia with the largest Russian naval base on the Black Sea.
With out going back to research it, the invasion of Georgia had a little something to do with Shevardnadze making overtures to NATO and or the EU. This was after the Soviet Block nations were brought into NATO the decade before . Nations act in what they perceive to be their National interests . Reverse the situation make it a Russian alliance in Quebec . No American President would survive the political firestorm.No American President would let that stand.
I have been saying this for a while(not that I am the original thinker) but I am in some good company far out of my league on this. Jeffery Sachs has called for a reset on our relations with Russia in an article on Brexit. Today Mark Weisbrot had a piece in The Hill Neither is a right wing Troll nor a Bomb throwing Radical.
First Weisbrot’s flattering description of Trump . Then the link to the rest of the article dealing with Russia and NATO
“Donald Trump is a monster, a buffoon, an ignorant orange clown, a sociopath and a narcissist. He is racist and misogynist. He has so little impulse control that he erupted with a pathetic defense of the size of his penis in the middle of a presidential debate, and tweeted unflattering pictures of Ted Cruz’s wife next to his own wife. It was at that point that even Rudy Giuliani, the most virulently racist politician allowed an audience on US national television, seemed to temporarily pull back from Trump’s campaign — not out of disgust but more likely from nagging doubts about whether a “man baby” with an eighth-grade mentality could get much further without self-destructing. But he did.”
http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/attacking-trump-for-the-few-sensible-things-he-says-is-bad-politics-and-bad-strategy
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Diane,
Forgive me. I hope Mr. Trump goes to the Slime he came from. He needs some R&R at Bellevue Psychiatric Ward. When HillaryClinton wins in November he will implode. All his fault no one else’s.
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Trump won’t implode. He will shout that Hillary cheated, call her a lot of insulting names in the media that will stir up the hate and violence from his followers, and then Trump will sue her in court blaming her for his loss.
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Implosion is the force that powers Trump. He’s like a supernova.
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Certain personality types thrive on drama and when there isn’t any they manage to create it. The only place they belong is orchestrating their daily drama –certainly not leading the most powerful nation on earth.
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Weren’t the deleted emails recovered by the FBI?
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Last week in the House of Commons, the new head of the British Conservative Party, Theresa May, was asked if she would authorize the use of nuclear weapons which could kill 100,000 people. She said yes. I wish both candidates would be asked that question. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/18/theresa-may-takes-aim-at-jeremy-corbyn-over-trident-renewal
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I should also note that Theresa May is the new British prime minister.
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So you are saying that Theresa May just wants to kill 100,000 people for the hell of it and out of the blue? I see, she’s having a bad day and says to herself “By gum, I’m going to launch a nuclear missile and incinerate 100k folks to make my day complete!”
Check, got it, she’s Adolph Stalin in the flesh.
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The nuclear weapons used on Japan during World War II took out about 100,000 people each time, but these nuclear weapons were very small compared to the ones the world has in use today that I hope are never used.
Modern hydrogen bombs are HUGE compared to the blast from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. Those bombs covered about 5 square miles each. The largest nuclear bomb the U.S. has today will take out 200 square miles. New York city, with a population of 8.4 million, for instance, covers 304.6 square miles of land area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwaA-dbVMW8
Nuclear weapons are a Pandora’s box. Open that box even once and there is no way to predict what will happen and who will also use their weapons against us or each other. If even one nuclear weapon is used against another country, everyone with those weapons could use them out of fear and/or anger.
For instance, if Trump is president and he uses a nuclear weapon in the Middle East, will a Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, like Pakistan, use one or more on Israel.
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Remember this? On a sunny morning in 1966 two US Air Force planes collided and dropped four nuclear bombs near the village of Palomares in southern Spain. There was no nuclear blast, but plutonium was scattered over a wide area – and Spain is now asking the US to finish the clean-up.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18689132
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Here’s another example of nuclear insanity: On a January night in 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber broke in half while flying over eastern North Carolina. From the belly of the B-52 fell two bombs — two nuclear bombs that hit the ground near the city of Goldsboro.
A disaster worse than the devastation wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have befallen the United States that night. But it didn’t, thanks to a series of fortunate missteps.
Declassified documents that the National Security Archive released this week offered new details about the incident. The blaring headline read: “Multi-Megaton Bomb Was Virtually ‘Armed’ When It Crashed to Earth.”
Or, as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara put it back then, “By the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted.”
It’s difficult to calculate the destruction those bombs might have caused had they detonated in North Carolina.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/us/north-carolina-nuclear-bomb-drop/index.html
We not only have to worry about crazy dictators with nukes but just dumb accidents which could trigger a nuclear war.
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There are many more nuke accidents, below is a link to a site that lists US accidents. What about the accidents in Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, India???https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/document-friday-narrative-summaries-of-accidents-involving-nuclear-weapons/
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For any regular politician, this latest insane comment of Trump’s would be the end of his career. Trump keeps shooting himself in the foot and he keeps growing new feet. When is enough enough? He’s making comments of this caliber almost every day which give him more free coverage but it’s free bad coverage. Obviously he doesn’t care and his followers don’t care either. DT is a clear and present danger.
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Remember, Joe, that Trump boasted he could shoot someone dead on Fifth Avenue and his followers wouldn’t care.
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And, Diane and Joe, following this statement of his, we see that only yesterday he committed treason by asking Putin to hack into our government’s email…and today it seems to be forgotten. Where is the DoJ? Could you or I have done that and not be indicted?
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He never disappoints me in proving his idiocy through consistent inconsistency that contradicts himself repetitively. This time he’s got a brand new molotov cocktail to sell out to Russia. Maybe, Vladmir Putin will be happy to call him Mr. Drumptruckvosksy in any occasion to meet at his secret con realty business projects. That surely will help boost his polls in the media.
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Trump’s followers just make excuses for him. Imagine if Trump was a Democrat and said and did these things what a field day Fox News and the Republicans would have.
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Isnt’ it be AT LEAST as important to discuss the CONTENT of the emails that were leaked as it is to consider HOW they were exposed? Main stream media, this blog, even NPR (whom I have completely lost faith in this election) think everyone’s attention can just be easily diverted from the corruptness of the democratic party. My attention is not diverted. They are untrustworthy.
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Chazanoff,
Do you trust the Republican party?
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