Random Politics & Religion #09

The arms race with Russia was getting sufficiently nuts, that's for sure. And I certainly believe that nuclear weapons should be an absolute 100% last resort. However, the whole "red button" idea that the president can just send a nuke anywhere at any time by just because he feels like it seems very overblown to me and approaching the realm of fantasy. Maybe someone can confirm or deny that for me, because it doesn't sound right. On that note, I highly doubt Trump would nuke anyone, and presidential opinion on military actions seems to change drastically from the day they get into office and get briefed by actual military leaders anyway so I don't put much credence to any Trump comments that have to be stretched to make a point in the first place.

The President doesn't have a red button that he pushes and nukes go up in the air. He doesn't even have the launch codes. He orders them to ready status, he can provide the target, he can issue the firing order, but somebody else, whether its a submarine (most likely firing position) or a silo in the Midwest, is turning the keys. Its always two people and they have to turn the keys at the same time and its impossible for one person to be within reach of both keys. Those movies that you see do have that part right (except for Crimson Tide, you can't leave a key in the launch position). So really, even tho the President is the final authority (he doesn't need the consent of anyone), if one of those key holders chokes, nothing happens.

Its never gonna happen tho, I don't think that any country is ever going to deploy nukes again, Trump shouldn't even talk about them.

orge Zimmerman says he was punched in the face after talking about the Trayvon Martin case at a Sanford-area restaurant over the weekend.

Zimmerman said he was ordering food at Gators Riverside Grille Sunday evening when he walked by a table with several people and complimented a man’s Confederate flag tattoos, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

The man, Joseph Whitmer, thanked him and asked, “aren’t you that guy?” Zimmerman said yes and pulled out his ID to prove who he was, a report shows.

Whitmer asked about the Trayvon Martin case and as Zimmerman started to explain that he fatally shot the unarmed teen in self-defense, another man walked up and asked, “You’re bragging about that?”

Zimmerman told that man he wasn’t but the man said “you better get the [expletive] out of here,” a report shows. Zimmerman told deputies he went back to his table where several of his friends were eating.

Deputies: George Zimmerman punched in face after talking about Martin case
George Zimmerman says he was punched in the face after talking about the Trayvon Martin case at a Sanford-area restaurant over the weekend.
Several minutes later, the man, who was only identified as Eddie, walked over to his table and said, “Didn’t I tell you to get the [expletive] out of here...” a report states.

Zimmerman told the man he wasn’t looking for any trouble and that’s when the man punched him in the face, breaking his glasses, records show. Restaurant staffers broke up the scuffle. Zimmerman called 911.

Zimmerman then called 911.

“This man just punched me in the face,” he told a dispatcher. “...He said he was going to kill me. You need to send three or four cops.”

He said the man and about five of his friends were holding him back. The man then fled in a blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

A Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said they are still attempting to locate the man, who could face battery charges.

Zimmerman told the dispatcher he was injured and needed paramedics.

“I don’t know where I’m bleeding from. My face is bloody,” he said.

“He told me he was going to kill me,” Zimmerman told a dispatcher. “He told me he would [expletive] shoot me.”

Several Witnesses told deputies a slightly different version. about what happened. Whitmer’s wife said Zimmerman approached them while they were eating and said “Hey, I like your racist tattoos,” records show.

He then told them about killing Trayvon “to brag,” a report states.

Another witness who was at Whitmer’s table said he also asked Zimmerman to leave their table. He said he had an issue after “Zimmerman came to his table and proceeded to brag about how he was the one who killed Trayvon Martin,” an incident report states.

Zimmerman told the Sentinel he thinks it was a miscommunication. In 2013, he was acquitted of murder in Trayvon’s death.

Zimmerman said the man was apparently intoxicated.

He said he thinks the man thought he was Matthew Apperson, who was accused of shooting at Zimmerman during a road-rage confrontation in May 2015 in Lake Mary.

Zimmerman said the man told him to go away and accused him of “shooting George Zimmerman,” prompting the fight.

Gators Riverside owner Ed Winters told a different story.

He said the incident started when Zimmerman approached a shirtless patron who had just come in from the St. Johns River and told him he didn’t like one of his tattoos. After a few words, Zimmerman walked back to his table.

A friend of the first man to approach Zimmerman — who was at the restaurant with family celebrating a 12-year-old’s birthday — walked over to Zimmerman to confront him, Winters said.
The two argued, but no punches were thrown, Winters said.

The two shoved each other, but Winters said claims of anything further are “blown out of proportion.”

Winters said Zimmerman called 911, prompting a full-fledged response from the police and fire department.

Zimmerman had been to the restaurant at least once before the incident, but Winters said Gators Riverside asked him not to come back after the debacle.

“Everywhere this guy goes he causes controversy,” Winters said. “You’d think he’d keep a low profile.”

“This man just punched me in the face,” he told a dispatcher. “...He said he was going to kill me. You need to send three or four cops.”

Obama sends 400 million to the wonderful nation of Iran. Nothing to see here folks move along.

But yeah. The problem is public perception and how Iran is spinning it saying they wouldn't have released the guys they did without the payment when that may not be entirely accurate.

But it was going to be a shitstorm no matter what, because it's us NOT firing missiles at Iran, which is what a lot of people seem to want, soooo...

Even if it wasn't ransom, it was a really dumb way to handle it. Paying off a decades-old business deal in pallets of cash at the same time as handling a prisoner release? Yeah....

Honestly, nobody reasonable wants another war. Not Republicans, not liberals/democrats, nobody.

This is the "false claim" you are going with? Not the outright lie the White House is trying to pass off that they did not pay a 400 Million dollar ransom to Iran in illegally laundered cash to get around our own Sanctions. You are something else Chanti. Really.

We've got some unreasonable people in both office and voting.

We've got some unreasonable people in both office and voting.

Your argument is with ABC news among others Aman, not with me.

Yeah, I didn't think that it was literally a button because that makes zero sense, but thanks for the info. It does further reinforce the idea that being nervous about any presidential candidate being nuke-happy is a bit of an irrational fear.

Luckily, none are in power to declare war with Iran.

Clinton is the one most likely to declare war on any nation. Regardless of what you say about Trump, Clinton has an actual record of her voting for the war on Iraq. Even if she "says" she wouldn't do it, but do you honestly trust a known liar?

Actually, his argument is with the Obama administration and their continuation, the Clinton campaign.

I don't know. We've said it a thousand times, no one is arguing for a candidate here as much as against the other. Which is a position of weakness on both sides, really.

Technically his argument is with Iran being shitty in the first place, and we're all just pissing and moaning about the right way to handle it.

I don't trust anyone except my wife and my mother. And the latter has a shelf life, because our family has a history of dementia in old age. Sooner or later, she's going to have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Fine, I'll argue for Trump:

At least he is slightly better than Clinton.

When Princeton Professor Andrew Appel decided to hack into a voting machine, he didn’t try to mimic the Russian attackers who hacked into the DNC’s database last month. He didn’t write malicious code, or linger near a polling place where the machines can go unguarded for days.

Instead, he bought one online.

With a few cursory clicks of a mouse, Appel parted with $82 and became the owner of an ungainly metallic giant called the Sequoia AVC Advantage, one of the oldest and vulnerable, electronic voting machines in the United States (among other places it’s deployed in Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania). No sooner did a team of bewildered deliverymen roll the 250-pound device into a conference room near Appel’s cramped, third-floor office than the professor set to work. He summoned a graduate student named Alex Halderman, who could pick the machine’s lock in seven seconds. Clutching a screwdriver, he deftly wedged out the four ROM chips—they weren’t soldered into the circuit board, as sense might dictate—making it simple to replace them with one of his own: A version of modified firmware that could throw off the machine’s results, subtly altering the tally of votes, never to betray a hint to the voter. The attack was concluded in minutes. To mark the achievement, his student snapped a photo of Appel—oblong features, messy black locks and a salt-and-pepper beard—grinning for the camera, fists still on the circuit board, as if to look directly into the eyes of the American taxpayer: Don’t look at me—you’re the one who paid for this thing.

Appel’s mischief might be called an occupational asset: He is part of a diligent corps of so-called cyber-academics—professors who have spent the last decade serving their country by relentlessly hacking it. Electronic voting machines—particularly a design called Direct Recording Electronic, or DRE’s—took off in 2002, in the wake of Bush v. Gore. For the ensuing 15 years, Appel and his colleagues have deployed every manner of stunt to convince the public that the system is pervasively unsecure and vulnerable....

Technically his argument is with Iran being shitty in the first place, and we're all just pissing and moaning about the right way to handle it.