2.5 Minutes to Midnight!

pilau

pilau

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-doomsdayclock-idUSKBN15A2JJ

"Nuclear 'Doomsday Clock' ticks closest to midnight in 64 years

Atomic scientists reset their symbolic "Doomsday Clock" to its closest time to midnight in 64 years on Thursday, saying the world was closer to catastrophe due to threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change and Donald Trump's election as U.S. president."

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Krauss, a theoretical physicist, said Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin carried a large share of the blame for the heightened threat.
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Hm. When you see this sentence out of the context, you wonder how nuclear war hasn't started yet. American cleptocrat vs. KGB dictator. However, I see no reason why doomsday clock should be closer to midnight now than in 2014. American interventionism at it's highest, meddling with couple of middle eastern and eastern euro states. In response, Russia invades Ukraine, annexes Crimea and enters Syrian war on anti-American side. Whatever your feelings, which side is more to blame, it's pretty much evident that things are less gloomy than 2.5 years ago. There are some consensus on how to approach things here and there, there is a ceasefire in Ukraine and most of the regional key players have an agreement on Syrian situation, Ru, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Israel is in passive agreement. With Trump winning I see this deescalating further. He is still a strong ally of KSA, the latest laws pushing that in your face basically, and he seems to approach things from the business side. But, Trump doesn't represent military industrial complex, he's in other lobbies. MIC has no real business value with Russians, the exchange of military technology came down to few projects in last 30 years since Ru has opened. While energy sector does. So waging wars in order to expend and sell hardware to allies is not profitable from this standpoint, you loose money in any case, and you antagonize other big players and jeopardize business with them.

The world politics today are pretty much populist, not extremist. That's why I think we're nowhere near Bay of Pigs stuff, you had huge blocks of opposing extremist ideologies, with hundreds of millions of people in each, not knowing jack shit about the other.
 
The Doomsday Clock also represents world destruction through environmental threat now, so the victory of Trump and his likely upcoming dismantlement of the EPA and withdrawal from the Paris protocols would certainly move us more in that direction.
 
@Zare, good analysis which I agree with most of it. I'd like to add the whole refugee crisis and how Trump's policies and general nature have the potential of causing antagonism among Muslims immigrants in Western countries, whether or not they are Western-inclined, as well as giving more fuel for the radical Islamists, to drive those same Muslims towards hatred towards the West.
 
@LooseCannon, true, but still we aren't 30 seconds away from Cold War levels. Even if we disregard policies on climate, in 2100 we'd still be far from cataclysmic effects that would occur if world gone MAD in 1984. That would essentially be arsenals at it's peak. That would wreck the atmosphere really, really hard. So they're telling me we're worst than 1984? Sensationalism. Counterproductive.

@pilau, agreed, it can effect western democracies where people will turn to populism and stuff (already seen across the board), and populists don't care much about green stuff and yes it can affect us, but that cause-effect chain is too long and too prolonged. We're talking about 3 MTM in nineteen fucking eightyfour.
 
@Zare Sure, I agree that the damage to the environment today is probably not as bad as nuclear war. But - that being said - it's only one measure of the clock. Other measures (nuclear war, terrorism, nuclear/biological terrorism) are on the docket as well. It's definitely sensationalism, but I won't suggest that sensationalism is counter-productive. If it was, Donald Trump wouldn't be president.
 
You could also argue otherwise. Trump is viewed as anti-mainstream media, mainstream media is sensationalist. But that's not the topic here.

Future has a bit brighter outlook IMHO :)
 
Obama, Hollande, Merkel, et.al. are not left wing.
Left fights for minorities. Obama, the Democrats, and the adjacent media machine fight for the rights of wrong minority. Each issue of inequality is worth fighting for, but if you intend to win you need to have priorities. I've expressed my disgust for having forced minority characters in TV shows before. There are less gays, lesbians, transsexuals, muslims, jews, sihkts and klingons in the U.S. than there are people living below the poverty line. Why the hell don't this shows include poor good willed hobos, helping with their wit and unique skills they've gathered along the way?

There's only one freedom, and that's economic freedom. Left should be fighting for that first, not your choice of fuck hole or imaginary friend. Everything else is fake.
This is again offtopic but let's clear some things out. Atomic scientists aren't, or aren't funded, by any sort of left wing.
 
Politics is welcome on Maidenfans if it's debated objectively and doesn't degenerate into a slanging match. There are threads on US Politics and European Politics in the General Discussion forum if anyone wants to debate politics in more depth.

As far as I can see, the OP was pointing out a news story relevant to the subject of a Maiden song.
 
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