{"id":8172,"date":"2025-10-06T09:46:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8172"},"modified":"2025-10-06T09:46:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:46:35","slug":"doomsday-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2025\/10\/06\/doomsday-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"Doomsday Clock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cold War<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States, were poised to launch nuclear Armageddon.\u00a0\u00a0The theory that \u201ckept the peace\u201d was a concept called \u201cMutual Assured Destruction\u201d.\u00a0The idea was that, no matter how devastating the nuclear attack one nation might launch on the other, the opponent\u2019s response would be equally as disastrous.\u00a0\u00a0Total destruction of both sides was \u201cassured\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0No wonder the acronym was \u201cMAD\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, founded by Einstein, Oppenheimer and many others fresh from the Manhattan Project, really knew best what the outcome of \u201cMAD\u201d would be.\u00a0\u00a0To illustrate the point, they established the \u201cDoomsday Clock<\/a>\u201d in 1947, representing how close the world was to manmade total devastation; \u201cmidnight\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The first \u201cclock\u201d was seven minutes to midnight.\u00a0\u00a0The farthest away from midnight was at the end of the Cold War in 1991, seventeen minutes to midnight.\u00a0\u00a0The closest it\u2019s been to \u201cmidnight\u201d, is right now, at 89 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why so dangerous?\u00a0\u00a0The world today is incredibly unstable.\u00a0\u00a0Russia threatens nuclear response if the West intervenes \u201ctoo much\u201d in Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0North Korea continues to build intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry their existing nuclear warheads.\u00a0\u00a0India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, are on the edge of conflict.\u00a0\u00a0China continues both political and military expansionism, including the ongoing threat to Taiwan.\u00a0\u00a0And the Middle East remains unstable, with Israel a known nuclear power, and Iran and perhaps others working to have their own \u201cbomb\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mutually Assured Destruction of the Cold War no longer holds nations in check.\u00a0\u00a0And the United States is totally distracted by its own internal conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy\u2019s Clock<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are on a different kind of clock. This one ticks away the seconds of Democracy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What does \u201cmidnight\u201d represent on this timepiece?\u00a0\u00a0The end of the US Constitutional \u201cexperiment\u201d, started in 1788.\u00a0\u00a0The removal of the very rights that caused the American Revolution in 1776.\u00a0\u00a0And when will the \u201cbell toll\u201d for American Democracy?\u00a0\u00a0On November 3rd<\/sup>, 2026 and on January 4th<\/sup>, 2027, if the United States fails to have a free and fair election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a \u201crevolution\u201d going on right now, one occurring under the \u201ccolor\u201d of law.\u00a0\u00a0The President is claiming extraordinary powers \u201cunder\u201d the Constitution, and no other branch of government is standing up to his extra-legal actions.\u00a0\u00a0The Supreme Court already granted full immunity to the President himself.\u00a0\u00a0They look to Congressional powers to \u201ccheck and balance\u201d the Executive.\u00a0\u00a0But Congress continues to accede to every Presidential demand, and allows him full rein in his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Revolution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Does this look familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n