Category: Daily Caller
The nukes are fine — the advice is not
Despite his well-known aversion to using the “other N-word” and discussing the issues connected to nuclear deterrence and nuclear saber-rattling by America’s adversaries, the president, during his recent trip to Asia, dropped a bombshell of his own.
On October 29, President Trump posted a brief statement on Truth Social about nuclear weapons testing, which contained the following key points:
- The United States has more nuclear weapons “than any other country.”
- During Trump’s first term in office, the U.S. accomplished a “complete update and renovation” of existing U.S. nuclear weapons.
- Because of other countries’ testing programs, the president has “instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”
- The process of testing our nuclear weapons “will begin immediately.”
Sadly, whoever provided the president with the background information for each of his statements is manifestly unaware of the easily ascertainable facts. The president is being extremely poorly served by his own staff.
The president appears to have been informed that the Department of War is responsible for nuclear weapons testing. It is not.
First, the Russian Federation has more nuclear weapons than any other nation. Its stockpile of nuclear weapons available to the Russian military is about 5,200, while its overall stockpile is about 5,600. The numbers for the U.S. are about 3,700 and 4,400, respectively. This information is readily available in public sources such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook or the annual assessments published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Second, during the president’s first term, progress was made on the Strategic Modernization Program initiated in 2010. Still, no new platforms (submarine-launched ballistic missiles, bombers, or land-based missiles) were deployed between 2017 and 2021. Instead, we rely today on aging systems that are decades old.
Importantly, a small number of modified, low-yield submarine-launched warheads were produced and placed in service, and development of new Air Force nuclear warheads began, but none were deployed.
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Photo by NASA/Getty Images
Third, the president’s staff has a profound misunderstanding about the difference between the test of a nuclear system’s delivery vehicle (i.e., a ballistic or cruise missile) and the test of a nuclear warhead. In the days before the president’s post, Russia conducted a test of a new cruise missile and a new trans-oceanic torpedo (both of which, incidentally, are not constrained by the new START treaty). Tests of missile systems are commonly conducted by all the nuclear powers, including the United States.
Today, with the sole exception of North Korea in 2017, neither Russia nor China nor any other nuclear power has conducted a nuclear warhead test in this century. To be clear, the U.S. intelligence community has raised concerns that both Russia and China may be covertly carrying out extremely low-yield tests of experimental nuclear designs, but those do not appear to be the “tests” to which the president’s Truth Social post was referring.
Finally, the president appears to have been informed that the Department of War is responsible for nuclear weapons testing. It is not. That responsibility belongs to the Department of Energy. Based on over 30 years of neglect, that department would be unable today to conduct a nuclear weapon test in the near future. Based on estimates provided by the Department of Energy to Congress, it would take 24-36 months to do so, at a cost of several billion dollars — dollars that have not been authorized or appropriated by Congress.
When asked, on his return flight from Asia, why he had delivered this signal of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons muscle-flexing, the president said he believed that if others were testing, then we should too. Depending on the state of our own nuclear weapons (currently assessed by the military as being reliable), and if he had been properly informed on the facts that others had resumed testing of nuclear weapons, there would be something to this argument. But as things stand, the president owes it to himself and to America’s national security to improve the quality of advice he is being provided on the vital issue of nuclear deterrence and our ability to sustain it — and soon.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.
Trucker Theft Rings Stealing Millions As Industry Reels From Horrific Crashes
Trucker Theft Rings Stealing Millions As Industry Reels From Horrific Crashes
Democrat Texas Senate Candidate’s Faith-Centered Social Media Reportedly Follows Porn Star, Adult Entertainer Accounts
‘While James was unaware of how these women make money, he does not judge them for it and will not play into an effort to smear them for clickbait articles’
Trump Tells ‘BIG, BAD Insurance Companies’ What Should Happen To Obamacare Money
‘In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare’
Mom of 5, pastor both fatally shoot escaped monkeys; authorities provide update on frantic search for animals
A Mississippi mother fatally shot a monkey to protect her children after the “aggressive” animals escaped from an overturned truck, according to multiple reports.
Police said a truck transporting 21 rhesus monkeys from Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans overturned on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg, Mississippi — approximately 85 miles southeast of the state capital of Jackson.
‘I hate that it happened, but I’m going to protect my kids at all costs.’
On Oct. 28, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, “A truck hauling monkeys from Tulane University has overturned around the 117-mile marker, north of Heidelberg. It has been reported that several monkeys are on the loose.”
Police stressed, “Do not approach the monkeys if you see one. Call 911. They do pose potential health threats and are aggressive.”
Officials from Tulane noted that the university wasn’t transporting the monkeys, and the animals do not belong to the university, according to NBC News.
Tulane told WTVT-TV, “Non-human primates at the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center are provided to other research organizations to advance scientific discovery.”
The sheriff’s office initially warned residents that the animals “carry hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID” based on preliminary reports by the truck’s occupants.
However, the biomedical research company PreLabs — which owns and was transporting the animals — told WDAM-TV, “The animals being transported were not infected with COVID-19, hepatitis, and herpes as indicated in certain news articles.”
PreLabs added, “The animals were being lawfully transported in compliance with all federal and state regulations to a licensed research facility.”
At the time of the car accident, 13 rhesus monkeys were quickly recovered at the crash site, according to another report from WDAM-TV. Meanwhile, another five monkeys were killed near the crash site — but three escaped, according to Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson.
Jessica Bond Ferguson — a 35-year-old mother with five children who range in age from 4 to 16 — was alerted by her 16-year-old son about a monkey running around the property of their home near Heidelberg.
Ferguson said she got out of bed, grabbed her gun and her cell phone, then went outside to locate the monkey, which was roughly 60 feet away.
Ferguson told the Associated Press, “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children.”
The mom recalled, “I shot at it, and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up — and that’s when he fell.”
“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” Ferguson declared. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”
She also blasted those responsible for the monkeys’ escape, telling TMZ that “I wish it didn’t have to happen that way. I just wish they took better measures in taking care of it and trying to find them.”
Ferguson continued, “I feel like if they wanted us to do something else, then they should’ve had a search team out. They could’ve had drones flying around. They could’ve taken more measures to look for these monkeys and prevented this from happening.”
She stressed, “I hate that it happened, but I’m going to protect my kids at all costs.”
In addition, a small-town pastor neutralized one of the other escaped monkeys.
On Monday, Pastor George Barnett was in his car traveling with his two young children and his wife to visit his mother at her home in Vossburg when his wife allegedly spotted a monkey near the highway.
NBC News reported the monkey “scampered into a tree and flashed its teeth.”
With that, Barnett, 45, grabbed his rifle and fired twice, the news network reported, and the monkey fell to the ground.
Barnett told NBC News, “As soon as I saw it, the only thing I thought about was, ‘What if this thing attacks one of those people that I grew up with, or my children?'”
On Thursday, the last escaped monkey was captured.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks told the Associated Press that a resident who lives near the crash site told authorities about the monkey’s location, and authorities “successfully recovered” the animal.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash.
PreLabs and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.
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Explaining Mamdani’s appeal to the young, with polling
It’s a sad week for the de facto capital of the world, New York City. The epicenter of American finance, media, and dynamism now enters a self-imposed trajectory of decline.
But those of us on the populist right should not merely shake our heads and bemoan the extremism of Zohran Mamdani, frightening though it is. Instead, we must understand his appeal, so that we might effectively counter his un-American ideas and continue to build on our 2024 triumph by earning further big gains nationally among young voters.
We have much to learn from Mamdani, even though he is a dangerous Marxist. Establishment Republicans have no effective answer to this kind of populism.
Polling shows the pathway to that success.
First, the great news. Young voters have swung massively to the right over the last three presidential election cycles. President Trump won young men in 2024, and overall, voters 35 and under shifted materially from a +37% preference for the Democrats in 2016 to only a +13% preference in 2024, cutting the young adult margin by two-thirds in just over eight years. It represents a massive macro shift.
In addition, a new national poll of 2,100 voters ages 18-25 shows a substantial rejection of Democrats’ radicalism on key social issues, especially transgenderism and free speech. Simultaneously, young voters express extreme frustration with the current economy, creating a clear opening that Mamdani drove a campaign truck right through.
So, backed by data, here are the three lanes of success that Mamdani exploited.
‘Affordability’ is key
Even though all of his Marxist answers are wrong and immoral, Zohran is laser-focused on the issue that matters most to voters, especially younger ones. Most young citizens have not benefited from the massive run-up in asset prices in recent years. Without substantial holdings of equities or real estate, they struggle to afford the staples of life amid sky-high costs. Even worse, the job market got substantially tougher for young adults, adding even more angst.
These voters correctly blamed the Democrats for the pain of Bidenomics, but that anger has now shifted over to Republicans, fair or not.
Right now, per TIPP Insights polling, only 24% of young adults rate Trump’s performance on the economy as “good” or “excellent,” while 54% rate it as “poor” or “unacceptable.” On inflation, using letter grades, only 6% of young independents give the president an A, while 44% deliver an F.
Mamdani smartly dove into this issue. All his proposed solutions will only make inflation worse, of course, from “free” public transit to lavish benefits for illegal aliens. But regardless, he fixated on what matters to voters, especially young ones.
Media skills
After watching Mamdani throughout the campaign, it’s clear he hates the founding principles and history of the United States. He exemplifies how America’s immigration system — even its lawful pathways — too often imports people who reject the nation’s heritage rather than embrace it.
That said, as a media professional, I can only respect his acumen in front of the cameras.
In this new digital age, which President Trump helped create, successful politicians must be able to perform effectively. Mamdani exudes charisma and likeability. His youth and enthusiasm captivated voters, especially those in the streaming/TikTok spaces.
Media savvy combined with lots of ludicrous promises of freebies is a pretty powerful approach in this populist age. Young people are especially receptive to the heavy use of new/alternative media. TIPP Insights shows that only 31% of independent young adults have positive sentiment for legacy media, and only 34% of young women.
Focus on home
Perhaps the most compelling moment of the campaign for Mamdani was during the July debate, when all candidates were asked where their first foreign visit would be as mayor of New York. All of them said Israel, with Ukraine thrown in as well. But Mamdani gave a truly “New York First” answer instead, one that might well have been uttered by a MAGA partisan. He said, “I would stay in New York City.”
That answer clearly appeals to young voters, who are decidedly non-interventionist abroad. For example, a whopping 69% of young men think we “intervene too much in foreign conflicts.” Only 26% of young adults think the United States should remain involved in Ukraine if Putin and Zelenskyy cannot reach a settlement soon.
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Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
That non-interventionism seeps over into a very negative view of Israel among young voters. Survey results found that only 25% of them have a positive view of Israel, versus 52% negative. Among young independents, only 18% have a positive view of Israel.
Therefore, Mamdani probably did not generate the blowback he deserved for extremist postures, such as embracing a pro-terror jihadi who was implicated, but unindicted, in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
We have much to learn from Mamdani, even though he is a dangerous Marxist. Establishment Republicans have no effective answer to this kind of populism, because their default is always “cut taxes for the wealthy and go to war.”
The MAGA movement has a very different vision — one that can appeal to reasonable young people in increasing numbers — to continue this patriotic, populist surge for decades to come.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
