Terrific guest on WJ earlier today

Kingston Reif, Deputy Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

He spoke very well about the forthcoming treaty and the general need to draw down our fucking obscene nuclear stockpiles, and because he's a professional he didn't even use the phrase "fucking obscene."

He was excellent--very knowledgeable and very patient with the callers.

However...

Republicans are seriously fucked up. Reif talked about reducing the stockpile from something like 2,600 nukes to 1,500, and the Repub callers were practically foaming at the mouth about it, as if we were outright turning our country over to "the enemy," whoever that might be. You could hear their eagerness to drop the bomb in the range of rationalizations they gave for the necessity of having enough nukes to destroy the world many times over.

Perhaps Reif's most damning point, however, was when he pointed out the the US is "bar none" the strongest conventional military power in all of history, so what does it say when we need the biggest nuclear arsenal on top of that?

I believe that he was on the 8:00ET segment with Pedro. Watch it if you get the chance!

attack would be. they see Japan doing well. think the A bomb attack is all over with. when it isn't.


the lasting and ongoing effects of that and the Russian nuke plant meltdown should be reported on more and taught in schools more.

I'm sure that they've seen fictional representations of nukes onscreen, with a big mushroom cloud, lots of knocked-down houses, and then business as usual.

Even the briefest research into the subject would give them a brand new perspective on the true horror of it.