Dementia Joe and the Football

I had no idea how easy it is for POTUS to order the launch of nukes. If the 11 second video below doesn’t scare the shit out of you into prepping, then nothing will.

OMG!!! A demented old fool controlled by the Chinese is being handed America’s nuclear launch codes!! SHIT!!! Hide the children, Martha!!

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Biden Can Now Launch the Nukes and Unleash World War III Whenever He Feels Like It

During the Trump administration, I pointed to a problem with the American presidential system: it provides presidents with essentially unchecked power when it comes to launching a nuclear holocaust. Presidents can initiate nuclear war whenever they like. They need not be acting in a defensive capacity. This should strike any sane person as a rather insane policy, and as a huge hole in the so-called checks and balances on which the US political system is allegedly premised.

Because of the Beltway hysteria over Trump, the Congress—possibly for the first time—considered measures to rein in the president in this regard. It’s a shame it required Trump derangement syndrome to make this an issue, but we should take what we can get when it comes to admitting some of the grave threats to commonsensical governance that plague the American national security state.

Naturally, these lukewarm attempts at reform failed, likely because the Pentagon was surely opposed to them. While the president’s power is essentially unrestrained in this manner, the loosey goosey approach to controlling launching power also empowers the Pentagon. Surely, the Pentagon’s generals wanted to make sure they can have a big role in launching World War III on a whim as well.

Moreover, Trump supporters opposed the idea as well. When I published the 2020 article on the problem of unchecked presidential power in this regard, I was savaged by Trump supporters on social media for allegedly being a “never Trumper” and failing to understand that the power of the president must never be limited in any way, lest it get in the way of Trump “owning the libs.” Now that Trump is an ex-president, however, both Washington and the hero-worshipping Trump backers will completely forget about the issue. As far as Washington is concerned, the nuke codes are now being controlled by one of their own. And few Trump supporters ever cared about limiting presidential power anyway.

So, the power to incinerate a billion or more human beings over morning coffee remains in the power of the president. This morning, Biden supporters on Twitter were ecstatic over the video of the nuclear “football”—the device which enables the president to launch the nukes—being handed over to Biden.

But this should be little comfort to anyone who’s paying attention, especially given that the launch codes are now under the thumb of a man who may not even know what year it is.

But regardless of who is president, the fact is that the only thing that stands between a president and his launching of nuclear missiles is his own moral compass. Anyone who isn’t hopelessly naïve about politicians and political institutions will find this deeply disturbing.

A Brief History of the Nuclear Launch Process

But why has there been no significant effort to develop some sort of check or veto to this process? Part of this lies in the fact the US military establishment maintains a posture very much in favor of erring on the side of aggression rather than restraint. In the early days of the nuclear-armed Cold War, there were essentially no safeguards in place. A man claiming to be the president, if he had access to the right people, could theoretically call for a nuclear strike, and there was no set way of remotely verifying his identity.

A more robust process was put in place by President Kennedy:

Although its origins remain highly classified, the Football can be traced back to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Privately, John F. Kennedy believed that nuclear weapons were, as he put it, “only good for deterring.” He also felt it was “insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.” Horrified by the doctrine known as MAD (mutually assured destruction), JFK ordered locks to be placed on nuclear weapons and demanded alternatives to the “all or nothing” nuclear war plan.

Kennedy began asking questions about how a nuclear strike might actually take place, and specifically asked:

  • “What would I say to the Joint War Room to launch an immediate nuclear strike?”
  • “How would the person who received my instructions verify them?”

Kennedy felt that it was important to ensure that only the president—whose identity could somehow be verified—could authorize a strike.

According to some critics of the Pentagon, however, the military was committed to making it easy to launch the missiles. The Air Force has even been accused of using “00000000” as a code that could enable the launch of a nuclear missile. According to Foreign Policy:

Bruce Blair, a nuclear security expert and former launch officer…[and] now a scholar and author at Princeton University, first raised the idea in a piece published in 2004. He accused the Air Force of circumventing President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 order to install extra security codes to safeguard against accidental or unauthorized launch by putting them in place, but making them painfully simple to the missile launch officers who manned underground bunkers. Doing so, Blair said, effectively eliminated the codes’ usefulness.

Blair contends this easy-code protocol persisted for at least a decade, including the period when he was a launch officer.

For its part, the Air Force denies using the specific code “00000000.” Nonetheless, the prolaunch posture of the Pentagon has long been evident. As noted by Jeffrey Lewis at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies:

Bruce is correct about the major historical narrative at stake—the United States Air Force, particularly Strategic Air Command, generally resisted the introduction of technical safeguards out of concerns that such measures might make it more difficult to use the weapons in the event of a conflict….Like many other practices of the period…the Air Force’s emphasis on readiness at the expense of safety at that time seems, admittedly with the benefit of hindsight, unwise in the extreme.

Other potential sources of human error or sabotage have surfaced over the years as well.

Military personnel close to President Clinton have claimed that he misplaced the so-called biscuit, the card on which nuclear launch codes are printed. Presidents have often carried them in a coat pocket. But they can be misplaced. According to one of the men who carried the football:

“[Clinton] thought he just placed them upstairs,” Patterson recalled. “We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn’t recall when he had last seen them.”

Other cases have reputedly occurred. President Carter allegedly “left his biscuit in a suit that got sent to the dry cleaners.”

One instance that has been confirmed, however, is when Ronald Reagan’s codes were left discarded and unattended following his attempted assassination:

During the chaos that followed the shooting, the military aide was separated from the president, and did not accompany him to the George Washington University hospital. In the moments before Reagan was wheeled into the operating theater, he was stripped of his clothes and other possessions. The Biscuit was later found abandoned, unceremoniously dumped in a hospital plastic bag.

While mere loss of the biscuit does not trigger any sort of launch, it is not difficult to predict how access to the codes could be abused by someone else in a chaotic wartime situation. Scholars have suggested several potential problems with verification and authorization.

For example, what if a president refused to launch missiles in opposition to the emphatic urgings of his subordinates? Could he then be incapacitated by his subordinates and his launch codes used under the authorization of another person?

It is unknown how this would play out. According to Ron Rosenbaum in ,

the whole question of nuclear command authority, and of who takes control of that authority if the president is killed in a nuclear attack, has frustrated experts and politicians for decades. Yale Law School professor Akhil Reed Amar has called the confusing succession problem “a disaster waiting to happen.”

This suggests problems whether a president is killed, thought to be killed, or is unreachable for a period. If the vice president assumes office and the original president later resurfaces, who then controls the nuclear weapons? Conspirators could also attempt to actively wrest control of launch authorization from presidents through deception. This could include having the president declared incapacitated for reasons of insanity under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. But Rosenbaum writes:

By then we’d be in coup territory, or inside an episode of 24. And what is sanity or insanity? What if the president refuses to carry out the deterrent threat of genocidal retaliation once it’s failed to deter a strike on us? Can those around him force the president to give them the Gold Codes and in effect give the launch order? Who determines who is sane and who is insane?

This strategy, of course, could be used by either side: a prolaunch vice president might ally with a secretary of defense to declare an antilaunch president mentally incompetent. Or, antilaunch underlings could seek to declare the president insane so as to prevent a launch.

Either way, it’s clear that this is uncharted territory and well outside the bounds of any orderly process of checks and balances on executive power.

Problems extend down the chain of command as well. In 1973, launch officer Major Harold Hering asked his superiors for clarification on how he could know if the president giving the order was sane. The military brass had no answer. Instead, Hering was forced out of the Air Force. Although the military likes to claim personnel are required only to follow legal orders—i.e., not planet-destroying orders issued by insane people—all that really mattered was that Hering be willing to launch missiles without question.

The fact of the matter is that there is no way to confirm that a president has consulted any facts on the necessity of nuclear war, or that the president is in his (or her) right mind when ordering a nuclear strike.

Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.

SOURCE

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Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it.

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CCRider
CCRider

I seriously doubt that old bat is anywhere near the football. My guess is it’s somewhere in the Pentagram. Besides my guess is that there are much more dangerous weapons in space. How often does technology almost a century-old stay relevant?

Lee Harvey Griswald
Lee Harvey Griswald

When it’s scary.

jaykay
jaykay

a nuclear blast is ALWAYS relevant.

Just Thinking
Just Thinking

I think the only thing they would let him launch is a NOAA weather balloon.

You know to monitor “climate change”.

Besides, he probably would think he’s voting for New England to win the Super Bowl.

“…yes, Mr. President, just push that button right there…”

messianicdruid
messianicdruid

He’s a placeholder, nothing more.

How is Joe Biden like a ham sandwich?

Anonymous
Anonymous

[spoiler title=” “]`

Brian Reilly
Brian Reilly

All this talk about the football, out-of-the-blue nuclear strikes is just another distraction. There is NO CHANCE that any President is going to issue a first strike order, out of the blue, good codes or not. There is also no way that a President (absent a Secret Service shootout, or some other Hollywood style foufarou) could stop a tight, concerted plot by the right people to order in his stead, but they would find the people further downstream NOT following.. The good news is that both situations are so implausible that they merit no public handwringing.

All of the people involved, as cold-blooded, hardhearted, and contemptible as most of them are, know that a nuclear strike is no-win foolish. Now response to a domestic (not Taiwan or Canberra) strike is one thing, but a first strike? No way. Our adversaries (even the Pakis and Norks) have the same opinion. Maybe someday, but not now. Not even if a CVN got smoked. If nuclear weapons first strike had any chance of being a positive experience, it would already have been used. There is no diplomatic or military situation that the addition of first-use nuclear weapons will not make worse. Thank goodness!

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

The mooslems are the only group I would say that would use a nuke as a first strike weapon. Some of them relish the idea of enough chaos to bring back the 12th imam.

They called it MAD for a reason.

falconflight
falconflight

Marg Bar Ayatollahs…

Depressed Aussie
Depressed Aussie

No sane president would launch a first strike. Payback would be less than an hour away. The only scenario I can think of where a leader launches a first strike using strategic missiles is where they are in a similar position as Hitler in April 1945. The use of tactical weapons with sub 50kt yields is much more problematic as they can be easily built by non state actors and small nations provided one finds enough high grade uranium. Imagine Syria false flagging a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Something like that worries me more than your child friendly president accidentally sending out an EAM while trying to text Dr Jill.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

A comment I remember from the Reagan years:

“Nothing worries me more than two septuagenarians who say they are not afraid to die for their country and also control most of the world’s nuclear weapons.”

DRUD
DRUD

I’m going to go out on a limb and say nuclear war is bad.

Ignatius J. Reilly
Ignatius J. Reilly

No need to worry. Xiden has our backs, come-on man. Besides, he’s busy redecorating and counting.

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Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Is it just me – or is his wife fucking GHASTLY ??

falconflight
falconflight

they don’t call him funny uncle Joe for no reason…

Mygirl....maybe

Only if Ghastly is a man….

Mygirl....maybe

Apparently he’s sneaking M&M’s under his mask too. Love the portrait on the wall.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

“The more I find out about Hitler, the less I care for him.” – Norm Macdonald.

mark
mark

“I had no idea how easy it is for POTUS to order the launch of nukes. If the 11 second video below doesn’t scare the shit out of you into prepping, then nothing will”.

Having developed this expensive habit of eating three squares a day…and sleeping in a warm bed…I’m not looking forward to eating cat food in the dark during this dark winter (nuclear or not).

Shoot Stuck…when the petulant charismatic cultural Marxist was selected the first time I went into serious prepping mode…when he was re-selected in 2012 I went into hyper prepping overdrive…

NOW WITH DEMENTIA JOE…I have given the order (to my wife) PREPPING LUDICROUS SPEED!

Not Sure
Not Sure

Why give the president the football? Because a launch can happen by an enemy that allows only about 20 minutes to respond, not enough time to “do a meeting” to figure things out, before the warheads begin impacting cities in the US.

It is what it is, I don’t like it but it’s just physics.

This is why choosing who should be positioned in the executive office must be a meticulous process of selecting the best candidate; a process that has been hopelessly riddled with politics, corruption and just plain stupidity.

God help us.

mark
mark

Be Sure…Not Sure

All spoofing aside…Biden has as much decision making control over the nuclear codes as this guy below had on where the next stop and pitching of tents was going to be..

comment image&f=1&nofb=1
comment image

God has already told us what has and is going to happen…it’s the timing I hope…is delayed…4th Turnings to Him are just pages in a book…that He wrote a long time ago.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

How long would it take for one of these bad boys to reach the District of Corruption from international waters off the coast?
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mark
mark

TN,

I get the threat but at this point why would these ORCs intentionally use friendly fire to destroy their own base???

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Mark – As I mentioned in another comment, only a radical mooslem would be willing to do something that stupid. PRC, NoKo and Ruskies know the answer would be devastating. Some in the sandbox believes it will take worldwide chaos to bring the 12th imam.

mark
mark

TN,

Yea, they are waiting for the cheaper by the dozen Imam…but I’d put my money on Jeremiah 49 happening to them first.

THE DESTRUCTION OF IRAN: Jeremiah 49

comment image

Written more than 2,600 years ago, Jeremiah may have predicted the fate of Iran’s nuclear program and today’s spiritual showdown in Iran! What are the odds of that?

https://www.christianevidence.net/2018/06/the-destruction-of-iran-jeremiah-49.html

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Mark. I would never doubt the words of God and if he told Jeremiah that he would put his throne in Elam, then it will happen and all in His timing.

August
August

With proper planning, an adversary could launch those bad boys from Baltimore harbor.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

If they were nukes, they would have to get by the radiation detectors first.

Mygirl....maybe

If it happened yesterday I daresay no tears would be shed for the departed.

Treefarmer

Global nuclear war and the Yellowstone super volcano eruption are two things you can’t prep for. I try to prepare for just about “everything” else.

mark
mark

Prep for eternity through the narrow gate Treefarmer… Global nuclear war and the Yellowstone super volcano eruption will be pimples on the landscape in the long run.

mark
mark

I apoligize for the above Treefarmer…sometimes I look in the mirror and see a kneejerk preacher.

My bad.

Stangdog
Stangdog

Clinton “lost” his code card? Yeah right, I’m sure he sold it for lotso money to some foreign entity.

WillamC
WillamC

The president does not launch the missels. He only makes it possible for the military to do so.

Think about it: What missles do we launch, those aimed at Russia, China, or another country. DO we launch everything? Do we empty the submarines as well? Do the bombers bomb the rubbel?

An attack has to be planned and coordinated. Once the President authorizes the use of nukes, the military decides when and where until told by Pres to stand down.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Ultimately, it comes down to the launch officers sitting in the silos, the ship commander and/or the pilot in an aircraft.

Todd Packer's Mentor
Todd Packer's Mentor

Anyone think the geezers in Genesis will make a new Land of Confusion video starring a Biden puppet?
“My generation will put it right.”
What a sick joke.
Unless they do a remake, Fuck them, despite their great talent.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Biden isn’t in control of anything. His handlers are.
But I wouldn’t put it past them to start a nuclear war because they’re all psychopaths.

Ghost

They truly are psychotic, aren’t they?

Depressed Aussie
Depressed Aussie

I doubt it would be possible for a president to order a launch alone. While he may have weapon unlock codes I am pretty sure he would also need targeting/yield codes for the Permissive Action Link in every warhead. There would have to be a conference with top brass which would buy time to get people in to stop him before a nonsensical order was given. I doubt sending an EAM to an Ohio class sub saying “Please bomb Moscow Authentication XXXXXXXX yours truly Joe B” would suffice.

olde reb

I think we should have 15 or 20 “footballs.” The counter attack would incinerate the E and W coast. I live in the midwest.

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