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Putin's invasion of Ukraine should reanimate the horror with which all peaceful people have viewed nuclear weapons since their inception, and it should reignite the worldwide movement to abolish them.
This is especially true in Colorado, a prime nuclear target.
Colorado is by design a prime target for a Russian nuclear attack, because a substantial batch of US ICBMs is deployed to silos in a patch of prairie that straddles NE, WY and CO. @coloradoan coloradoan.com/story/news/202…
@coloradoan This cluster of nukes is well-known to Russian war planners. “Their primary mission is to be destroyed in the ground, along with all the people that live anywhere near them,” wrote Tom Collina in @DefenseOne. The site is known as a “nuclear sponge.” defenseone.com/ideas/2017/02/…
Colorado has a bonus high-priority nuclear target, North American Aerospace Defense, or NORAD, at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. @emmaathenam coloradonewsline.com/2021/09/08/we-…
@emmaathenam That’s why Putin’s aggression is especially unnerving to Coloradans. His message: We have nukes, and we’re ready to use them. It would be a mistake to treat the message as a bluff. politico.com/news/magazine/…
@emmaathenam We’re told that human civilization survived the Cold War due to deterrence, the principle that one state’s nuclear weapons would deter an enemy from attacking with its own nuclear weapons since the enemy could expect retaliation or mutual assured destruction.
@emmaathenam But deterrence is a loathsome basis on which to plot the annihilation of whole societies. Among the numerous flaws of nuclear deterrence theory is that it depends on leaders acting rationally. Can you think of any unhinged men who've controlled nukes? Yeah, exactly.
@emmaathenam Moreover, the mechanics of deterrence theory are deeply immoral, and the very presence of nuclear weapons creates an unacceptable potential for accident or misunderstanding. The whole justification for strategic nuclear arms is sophistry.
@emmaathenam Committed resistance to the grotesque weapons in our midst has slackened in the last two decades. But the Russian threat warrants a resurgence of anti-nuclear protest.
@emmaathenam Every American, every Russian, every human on the planet can find ways to assert opposition to strategic nuclear arms. And Coloradans would have at least as much to gain from the success of such protest as anyone. #Nonukes@BulletinAtomic@FAScientists
If the #MarshallFire enters Rocky Flats, especially the still-off-limits central operable unit, where the worst radioactive pollution occurred, it would be reasonable to wonder if the smoke plumes carried plutonium contamination.
Independent analyses have identified plutonium particles even along Indiana Street, part of which is under evac orders. There's not much debate about whether there's plutonium in the soil, the point of contention is how much.
Advocates have argued against controlled burns at Rocky Flats precisely out of fear they would spew radioactive smoke into nearby neighborhoods.
Horrific situation in #bouldercounty
• No casualties, but "we would not be surprised if there are injuries and fatalities," sheriff said
• Entire Superior neighborhood of 370 homes, gone
• Couple hundred homes in Old Town Superior, gone
• 110 mph winds supercharged flames
On Monday, five people were killed as a result of the latest paroxysm of gun violence in Colorado. In a healthy society, such a heinous act of violence would be extraordinary. But our society is sick, and such violence is routine.
The Monday shooting in Denver might have been the worst single act of gun violence in America that day, but it was nowhere near the only one — there were victims in more than 20 other cities.