Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

This fight is for everything.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

After roe, women are no longer free.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Music / Monday Morning Open Thread: Welcome to the Future

Monday Morning Open Thread: Welcome to the Future

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When I was ten years old, I was legitimately afraid that a nuclear war would end human life on earth. We joke about what the current Oval Office occupant might do, but the difference is that we can joke, which some of you can attest was not at all the case during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The revanchists are always with us — and always dangerous — perhaps we can set up a closed virtual reality “resort” where all the windows show time-delayed Fox News ‘casts and 1950s sitcoms 24/7?


.

Apart from daring to dream about the future, what’s on the agenda for the start of the new week?

***********
Props to the 13th Doctor, but this made me grin…

Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    Nancy

    Good Morning, Anne Laurie and early East Coast risers,
    My alarm clock was out-done this morning by the thunder and on my day off.
    I, too, was a well-informed child of the Cold War and expected to live a shorter life than I have. As a very young child, I saw Premier Nikita K—–(spell check doesn’t do a thing with his name) on TV saying he would bury us. Very scarey way to grow up.

  2. 2.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Have to fill my extra propane tank, get things ready for the weekend’s milky way photoshoot and may get my tat finished(like I haven’t been saying that for 6 months).

  3. 3.

    bystander

    I remember as a kid being made to go through the duck and cover exercise in the event of nuclear war. I would always imagine I would crawl out the classroom door and run all the way home before the bomb detonated. In KC, it was assumed we’d go first. Big population center and destruction of all the bread basket of the Midwest, plus fast access over the Pole, made KC a likely target.

    Ah, good times!

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I remember all that duck and cover bs in school, but I was too young for it to ever be real, and when I got older I realized that if it ever did happen I was gonna be dead so why worry about it. The species of our planet now face a far more real threat from human kind and all the forces of capitalism are intent on seeing to it that nothing is done to mitigate that threat.

    Our grandchildren are so fucked.

  8. 8.

    Anne Laurie

    @bystander: Heck, the nuns at my parochial school didn’t bother with duck’n’cover drills — we were in NYC (well, the Bronx), so obviously our first warning would be a flash of light we’d never see beyond. Our only security, they told us, was to spend every minute in a state of grace, so as to be sure we’d join our Maker with our souls ready for inspection.

    And, even by the age of ten, I knew enough of the science to appreciate that their estimate was probably sounder than that of the CD commercials!

  9. 9.

    Arclite

    RE: Dr. Who. Jodie W. was pretty good as the wife in Broadchurch, (although a very different role) so she’s definitely got the chops. Might make me start watching again.

  15. 15.

    Hal

    A Facebook friend posted yesterday that even if Russia hacked the DNC, all they did was expose the “collusion” between the DNC and the Justice Department, and how Bernie Sanders should have been the nominee. Never mind his previous (as in last week) comments were that there was nothing to this story at all.

    Now it’s foreign government with hostile intentions screwing with our election system? So what. The real crime is Hillary Clinton. Evangelical Christian voters are so amazingly fraudulent in their beliefs that it is as laughable as it is pathetic.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Capitalism isn’t the problem, it’s the political system that fails to regulate market failures

    Why do you think the political system is unable to regulate market failures? Capitalism, aka ‘greed’, aka ‘big money’, has captured our govt. Don’t think for a second that they are gonna surrender it without a fight.

    Every time I saw a ‘Take my country back’ bumper sticker during Obama’s years, I wanted to say, “You can’t have it back. The Koch brothers aren’t selling.” At the time I was referring to the inequality gap, but now?

  17. 17.

    bystander

    @OzarkHillbilly: And Fort Leonard Wood.

    @Anne Laurie: Went to public school so they couldn’t tell us to start reciting the prayers of our choice.

    My favorite “the school is bombed” scene is in “Hope and Glory”. What a great movie.

  20. 20.

    Mustang Bobby

    I remember the duck and cover drill at Elm Street Elementary in Perrysburg, Ohio. I also remember listening to Castro carry on about Yanqui imperialism on the shortwave (I had a friend whose mother was Cuban; she provided the translation) during the Cuban missile crisis and wondering if Toledo, Ohio was important enough to hit.

  21. 21.

    raven

    Nike’s on Lake Shore Drive!

    “Having spared Wooded Island, the army instead raised its radar towers over the 55th St. Promontory, a circular, windswept field jutting into Lake Michigan. Their guidance systems in place, Nike-Ajax missiles soon arrived just below 63rd and Lake Shore Drive, along with personnel to maintain, guard, and fire them. By the end of 1954, Base C-41 had begun operations.”

  22. 22.

    Hal

    @Baud: He’s a great barometer for what Fox News is saying. If I didn’t read his statuses and just watched Fox I would know exactly what he thinks.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @bystander: Whiteman would be the reason for a first strike targeting tho, it has nuclear weapons. They would get around to Fort Lost in the Woods about the 3rd or 4th strike.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    Looking at that late-night thread and seeing the “what cherry tree?” tweet…one has to wonder what the excuses will be when it’s all out there. I mean at the very end, where can they go beyond, “It’s the Secret Service’s fault we committed treason?” The mind boggles.

    Anyway, it’s a beautiful morning and the start of a new week…off to swim some laps!

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I find it rather ironic that McTurtle has delayed the Deny Americans Healthcare bill so that Sen John McCain can get…. Healthcare.

  28. 28.

    eclare

    Here in ER with mom who has swelling from congestive heart failure. Thank dog there is a 24/7 Starbucks.

  29. 29.

    Schlemazel

    @bystander:
    I did some work with the Civil Defense in the early 80s. The USSR would have used a technique called “foot printing”. In order to make up for the potential margin of error the would drop 3 10 Megaton warheads about 10 miles apart on Minneapolis/St. Paul in a line from Northwest to Southeast. I can only imagine militarily significant targets would have gotten it much worse. Population centers on the Coasts, NYC, Boston, LA would have been obliterated and the very lucky would have died in the blasts. All that duck and cover crap was the TSA of its time; designed to make you think you could be safe

  30. 30.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Schlemazel: We go to Joshua Tree National Park, you basically need some place that pretty far from a populated area and it’s accompanying light pollution. The Dark Skies website can help: http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html. As far as equipment, you need a wide angle lens 18mm for full frame, maybe 12mm for a cropped sensor(mine’s a cropped sensor), the lens should be as fast as you can afford(ie, low f-stop) I shoot with a f/2 lens, and you need a good tripod and a remote for the camera(you don’t want to have the camera jiggle when you press the shutter).

  31. 31.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: can’t be hammered on enough. It’s a sore point with a lot of people who otherwise support the racist party: the suits in DC make sure they get the best care, the best pension, the best ever but vote against regular people getting any of that.

  34. 34.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I’m from the 80s, and there were relentless popular culture reminders that nuclear war could happen at any moment. Reagan’s senile posturing only reinforced that. It gave me a constant, low level dread. I think the Republican Congress’s determination to kill us all more slowly, and parents’ fears about it, might scar some of today’s kids the same way.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Capitalism, aka ‘greed’, aka ‘big money’, has captured our govt

    No. ‘Fuck Anything liberals want’ has captured our government. The greedier rich have benefitted from that since Reagan planted the idea, but it is definitely the 27%, not the 1%, in charge. Trump’s election proves this. If the rich really ruled our politics, we’d have Jeb as president and no dug-in Democratic Party. Also no debt ceiling showdowns.

    @Hal:
    And this eloquently demonstrates my point. Nobody is more Cleek’s Law than the evangelicals, and they went all-in for Trump early, while people who don’t get their faith is nothing but a cover for racism thought they’d hate him and go for other Republican candidates.

  38. 38.

    Schlemazel

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I have been in places dark enough in Northern MN (and FL but I never saw it it FL for some reason). I don’t have a tripod and probably have not left the exposure long enough. Thanks for the advice

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ETA: As far as actually making the shot…generally set ISO to start at 1600, and exposure at 500/lens size(500/12) to get the exposure time in seconds(you may need to adjust that for a cropped sensor). It’s best to make some test shots(even with light pollution) to see what the maximum you can shoot before getting star trails). At longer exposures you will start to see the earth’s rotation and the stars will end up a lines as opposed to points. If you have interesting scenery in the foreground, it’s a good idea to shoot that separately at a low ISO and a longer exposure(you don’t need to worry about star trails). Finally, once you get the shot you have to do post processing(getting the contrast and color balance right) and put the foreground shot together with the sky shot.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    The greedier rich have benefitted from that since Reagan planted the idea, but it is definitely the 27%, not the 1%, in charge.

    They created the 27% and are now riding the tiger. Time will tell who gets eaten first but somehow or other I don’t think it will be the ones with body guards.

  43. 43.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:
    I’ll go for that! They are staunch allies, since the 27% love to see the rich unrestrained in grinding the poor, hate all regulations because “You’re not the boss of me!”, and want to lower the rich’s taxes just because those n-clang loving liberals complain about inequality. For assholes like the Mercers, it’s a wonderland where the sheep line up to be fleeced and fight to be first in line.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    A white woman was shot by police in Minnesota after calling 911. Sad story, but it will be interesting to see how people react.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Here, let me give an example. In 2009, Republican establishment figures, including McConnell and Karl Rove, pushed back on television against some of the crazier shit the base was spouting. They were all forced to publicly apologize within days, under a wave of hateful blow back. It wasn’t FOX that gave the angry base those marching orders, it was Rush Limbaugh, the voice of the Cleek’s Law 27%. The base lost their shit long before the Kochs realized they could fund this and turn it into the Tea Party. For that matter, most of the greedy rich are Cleek’s Law nutcases. The Kochs may talk Libertarianism, but the candidates they picked were the hardest social conservatives.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    But they didn’t create the 27%. Desegregation did, or at least put the racist block already in existence into the same camp as the asshole rich.

    Tomato, tomahto… They threw a rope over it so they could use it for their own purposes. They thought they could control it and for a while it appeared that way.

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hal: What was your response to your friend? Just curious because it appears that there is nothing that can be said to snap these people out of their delusional alternate reality where Secretary Clinton and Democrats are always the bad guys. No matter what Republicans do, somehow they’re on the right side.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    They have been trying to sell the idea of internet connected refrigerators for 20 years now. Still a dumb waste of money.

  55. 55.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Hopefully people will react with disgust if the shooting was unjustifiable. I think one thing that is lost in discussing police brutality is that it impacts Whites and non-Black people as well. But my heart goes out to the family and friends of this woman since this may be just another example of the police shooting first and asking questions later.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    @satby:
    Reminder:
    They have exempted themselves from Trumpcare.
    Hammer that home. They will have Obamacare, while taking it away from everyone else.

  70. 70.

    Luthe

    I am disappointed none of my fellow nerds here have declared the speed at which they will be separated from their money by the new Star Wars hotel (my answer: almost instantaneously).

  71. 71.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: She’s white, blonde, attractive, and from a country (Australia) that’s not Muslim and with which we have relatively good relations. As a result, I’m sure the cops involved will be punished heavily — at least two weeks desk duty with pay seems about likely. :-(

  72. 72.

    Lapassionara

    @eclare: My mother was in and out of congestive heart failure more times than I can count before she died at 91. The first time I heard the diagnosis, I freaked, but it is treatable. Unlike her dementia. Old age is not for sissies.

    She was a staunch Christian, and took the faith seriously. She attended a civil defense meeting one evening, and returned home to tell us that we would not be building a bomb shelter because, if we did so, we would have to be prepared to shoot our less well prepared neighbors. That was a line she would not cross.

  73. 73.

    charluckles

    I’m on vacation and the only available newspaper has been the WSJ. I’ve read it in the past, but don’t remember it being this strikingly bad. It’s Pravda.

  74. 74.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    Still a dumb waste of money.

    Also the base of a Steven King story. Sentient appliances! Not in our house. thanks

  75. 75.

    Hal

    @Patricia Kayden: I didn’t bother responding this time. What he wrote was stupid and illogical and flies in the face of many things he’s said in the past. Nothing I say is going to change that.

  76. 76.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I like it. It looks like maybe where Oompa Loompas come from.

    Have a great trip and capture those stars. Looking forward to the new LA/Milky Way mash-up

  77. 77.

    efgoldman

    @Lapassionara:

    Old age is not for sissies.

    Bette Davis said that, and she was SO right.
    I’ve been hospitalized 3x for CHF. The first two were a reaction to a very, very commonly prescribed BP drug. The other one was because my weight got out of control. I’ve stayed out of it for several years. IV Lasix is no fun.

  79. 79.

    Immanentize

    @eclare: and thank Dog you can be with you Mom. Not everyone has both Mom AND Starbucks. Good luck to her….

  81. 81.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Bruuuuce:
    I’ll take whatever I can get if it stirs sentiment against unchecked police violence. I wish the context weren’t that the sentiment to control the police has to fight against the sentiment that black lives should not matter. Jesus, that’s so disgusting.

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Did the woman suffer from mental illness? The Supreme Court declared open season on the mentally ill last term. In my darkest moments, I worry that there is a secret cop club that you only get into by killing someone while on duty.

  85. 85.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hal: True. At least he’s just a friend and not a spouse. On David Pakman’s show a woman called in to say how intimacy in her marriage was being negatively impacted by the fact that her husband is a Trump supporter. Yikes!! I felt sorry for her as you could hear the frustration in her voice.

  86. 86.

    Ohio Mom

    @eclare: The old joke goes, There are two places you need a friend on the outside: prison and the hospital.

    Good luck, wishing you and your mom smart and responsive nurses.

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @Frankensteinbeck: Lots of little things all together gave us Trump. There was definitely an effort behind all of them (voter suppression, changing the GOP rules to favor the front-runner, the mountains of free publicity for Donnie’s “news”, the non-Democrat running in the Democratic primaries, Wikileaks, Putin’s interference, Citizens United, Benghazi, Comey, Lynch talking with Bubba, Garland, misogyny, etc.) but Donnie winning was a fluke. Things still would have been stacked against Hillary had she taken office, but we shouldn’t think that we’re up against some all-powerful machine that will inevitably win. (I know you’re not saying that – it’s just that sometimes the rhetoric around here goes a little overboard, IMHO.)

    Steve Forbes was saying lots of the same things that Donnie was. It wasn’t just the message from the 27% / 1% that gave Donnie the win. It was lots of other “little” things.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @raven:

    Nike-Ajax missiles soon arrived just below 63rd and Lake Shore Drive, along with personnel to maintain, guard, and fire them.

    Wow. Didn’t know about that. Used to live in the neighborhood. Thanks for the local color.

    Also: Fuck LBJ

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    @satby:

    can’t be hammered on enough. It’s a sore point with a lot of people who otherwise support the racist party: the suits in DC make sure they get the best care, the best pension, the best ever but vote against regular people getting any of that.

    Just a reminder:

    THEY.HAVE.EXEMPTED.THEMSELVES.FROM.TRUMPCARE.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    A white woman was shot by police in Minnesota after calling 911. Sad story, but it will be interesting to see how people react.

    Was she poor?

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    @charluckles:

    I’m on vacation and the only available newspaper has been the WSJ. I’ve read it in the past, but don’t remember it being this strikingly bad. It’s Pravda.

    Rupert buying it. Before hand, only the editorial page was crazy. The news part was some of the best business journalism in the country.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Schlemazel: I’ve seen it from the middle Keys, even in summer. Saw it from a boat on the Suwannee River last October as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good camera with me either time.

  100. 100.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Mustang Bobby: I was in grad school south of SF at the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis. While I watched tv with others in the Student Union, my main thought was ‘How do I get out of this place??’ Unfond memories of the Student Union: watched there the reports of JFK’s assassination, the swearing in of LBJ, JFK’ funeral, LBJ’s announcement of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

  104. 104.

    gene108

    @rikyrah:

    THEY.HAVE.EXEMPTED.THEMSELVES.FROM.TRUMPCARE.

    They had to or else their staffs would be forced to buy insurance from their respective state exchanges, so pre-existing condition, 50-something, senior staffer from Alabama would be shit out of luck getting himself insurance.

    They know how bad this will be for folks.

    They just do not care.

  107. 107.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Team Trump was the first to swallow the bait, then, once Trump was reeled in, Trump’s minions told the Kremlin where to cast baited hooks in the social media swamp for greatest effect. The story of the 2016 election is a fish story, and Putin has the slimiest, most rotten fish of them all mounted on the wall in his dacha.

  109. 109.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    @rikyrah: Team Trump was the first to swallow the bait, then, once Trump was reeled in, Trump’s minions told the Kremlin where to cast baited hooks in the social media swamp for greatest effect.

    The data leads to Kushner and The Mercers. I stand by that.

  111. 111.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Yep, and that Brad Parscale creep who reported to Kushner. He collected almost $100M from a notoriously cheap-ass campaign. If Mueller & Co. can get that specimen under oath and compel him to tell the truth, we might finally get to the bottom of this rotten conspiracy.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @eclare: Moms rule. Hoping your mom recovers just fine and has a lot of years ahead of her.

    Enjoy that Starbucks, in the meantime.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all.

    This year, think I will treat myself to reading Octavia Butler’s work. Hadn’t really heard of her before BJ, and Anne Laurie is a big fan. SO:

    Do I start at the beginning? She seems to have a few series.

    Appears her mid-career Parable novels, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents , are available at my small central Virginia library AND appear highly relevant to current events.

    Any suggestions?

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    Excellent NBC report on how Putin murders anyone who stands in his way as he steals billions of dollars from Russia https://t.co/73Izq674tT
    — Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) July 8, 2017

    “Most aggressive Russian I’ve ever encountered,” says @BillBrowder. @juliaioffe makes me think he might be right. https://t.co/7r2GzWy7S6
    — Stephen Sestanovich (@SSestanovich) July 15, 2017

    Russian lawyer at center of Trump scandal has dedicated her entire Twitter feed to excoriating @Billbrowder & murdered lawyer S. Magnitsky https://t.co/YsmyMFaaeE
    — Ani Wandaryan (@GoldenTent) July 11, 2017

  117. 117.

    rikyrah

    WSJ: There were nearly 150,000 attempts to hack South Carolina’s voter registration system on Election Day.https://t.co/Ll9YbTM3bZ
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2017

    In Illinois “hackers were hitting the State Board of Elections ‘5 times per second, 24 hours per day’ from late June until Aug. 12, 2016.” https://t.co/mGVmxH6zfY
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2017

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    THERE.WAS.NEVER.ANY.LINE.

    Emoluments clause…
    Emoluments clause…

    the entire lot of them..
    PHUCKING TRAITORS.

    ………………………………………….

    Trump again blurs the line between his office and his business
    07/17/17 08:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    There’s reason to believe Donald Trump takes the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament seriously, and not because he’s a fan of the game. USA Today reported last week, for example, that Trump allegedly threatened to sue the U.S. Golf Association if it moved the event from the club he owns in Bedminster, N.J.

    It’s against this backdrop that the president used his Twitter account to heavily promote the tournament, starting with this tweet on Friday morning:

    “Left Paris for U.S.A. Will be heading to New Jersey and attending the #USWomensOpen, their most important tournament, this afternoon.”

    From there, Trump tweeted about the U.S. Women’s Open again and again and again and again and again. He let American know that the event would be “very exciting” and he’d personally be in attendance.

    ……………………………………………………..

    I appreciate the fact that the number of ongoing controversies surrounding Trump and his White House is already large, but while the conflict-of-interest questions have taken a back seat to crises such as the Russia scandal, they haven’t gone away. Between Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster, and Trump-owned hotels, these conflicts would be a major story in a normal administration.

    Norm Eisen, the Obama White House’s chief ethics attorney, recently told the AP that Trump is “becoming more and more brazen in his efforts to monetize the presidency.” The fact that this quote is broadly applicable is a problem.

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    @Karen: I feel terrible about the senseless killing by police. At the same time, I can’t help but notice that we have not heard about that time she pushed her friend in kindergarten or how she made some stupid mistake when she was a teenager, or how she was otherwise unworthy and therefore deserving of her fate.

  126. 126.

    The Lodger

    @Baud: I’d buy an Internet connected oven though. I’d be able to see if I really did leave the burner on.

  127. 127.

    sherparick

    @Schlemazel: A popular poster at the time: “In Case of Nuclear War: Put your head between your knees and kiss your ass good-bye.”

  128. 128.

    mapaghimagisk

    @Karen:

    On Saturday night, Dr. Justine Damond, 40, a well known Australian healer and former veterinarian from Sydney, was shot by police in her pajamas outside her home.

    How those police got into her pajamas, we’ll never know

  130. 130.

    Heidi Mom

    Thanks, Anne Laurie, for posting Brad Paisley’s “Welcome to the Future” video. It, and he, are favorites of mine. Sometimes, when my spirits are low, I watch the video for a mood boost — it’s very optimistic, as watching children talk about their hopes and dreams usually is, I suppose. Brad is sometimes referred to as country music’s token liberal (though he’s not the only one) — he performed for the Obamas at the White House, accompanied President Obama on a visit to the troops in Afghanistan, and has spoken about how President Obama formed his young kids’ idea of a president because he was the only one they’d ever known.

  132. 132.

    Gelfling 545

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: George Bernard Shaw wrote that it is to be rememberes that neither socialism, capitalism or indeed any other economic system is divinely ordained or somehow natural to humankind. Economic systems arise out of our values or they should. What capitalism as practiced in the US says about our values is shameful.

  134. 134.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Just FTR, there might have been a time & a place where “duck & cover” wasn’t entirely stupid – & it wasn’t clear for many years afterward that in fact there never was.

    If the Rooskies had dropped a 100 kt bomb (2.5 times the largest yield of a fission bomb they tested in the 1950s) on the Baltimore city center (intersection of Baltimore & Charles Sts.), roughly 4 mi (6 km) as the ionizing radiation flies from my elementary school (a 1920s-era 2-story brick building now a senior center, sited along a NE/SW axis), it would probably have sustained moderate damage from the blast & shock wave, but stayed standing. The city side would have been roasted & toasted by thermal & ionizing radiation, but the far side would have escaped direct exposure. After the explosion the biggest immediate danger to anyone on the far side would have been flying objects & collapse of the structure. “Ducking” under the desk would have provided some protection against collapse of the ceiling, “covering” the same for flying debris.

    We know now there was no real chance that the USSR could deliver a nuke anywhere in CONUS before the Tu-95 “Bear” bomber entered service in 1956; older planes didn’t have the range (& ICBMs weren’t even on the screen as a possible threat before late 1957). And by that time the Soviets had developed & deployed the RDS-6 thermonuclear device, small & light enough for the Tu-95 to deliver, with a 400 kt yield, & had tested a 3-Mt air-deliverable H-bomb, which would arguably have flattened our entire row-house suburb.

    IOW by the time there was a credible Soviet threat to atom-bomb US cities, the yield of the weapons was such that (in the immortal words of the parody Civil Defense poster) “kiss your ass goodbye” was about the only logical response. Easy to say in retrospect, but in those days so little was known & so much was feared…

    /just for the hell of it

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