[ExI] Repudiating the national debt

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Thu May 12 18:00:10 UTC 2016


On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 11:41 PM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

​> ​
> While I wouldn't want to risk it, my guess is other folks in the chain of
> command would likely not follow orders


​
That's
​​
not the way things work. The only way to communicate with Trident Nuclear
Submarines when they're submerged (and they're always submerged except when
in port) is by Extremely Low Frequency radio waves, it's very
​very ​
slow, only about 2 words a minute. And it only works one way, submerged
submarines don't communicate with their land based bosses at all. There is
simply no way for the submarine
​ ​
commander to have a debate about the geopolitical situation with
headquarters
.​

​When the Captain
 receives launch codes he's trained
​to open his sealed orders and verify that the launch code is correct, he
then asks his second in command to double check him to make sure the code
is correct. If they both agree that their submarine has received a valid
launch code then they are trained to
immediately launch
​their​
 24 ICBMs with their 192 H-bombs
​.​

​And
 that is exactly what
​they​
 will do. And there is a 25.2%
​chance ​
Donald Trump will have those launch codes in 8 months.

>…Why not simply advocate getting rid of the presidency,
>

spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:


> >
>> ​>​
>> Because that would require getting rid of the constitution which
>> ​ ​
>> is a bad idea.
>
>
> ​> ​
> Why?
>>

​
Because once a standard has been set changing it is
​ a ​
awesome
​ ​
responsibility and is not worth doing unless you're sure the new standard
will be ASTRONOMICALLY better, and even then the transition period is going
to be extremely unpleasant and chaotic. Yes a libertarian paradise with
Privately Produced Law and Private
​
Protection
​ Agencies would be better than the nationalistic system we have now, but
the current standard is so well established that safely changing it now to
something radically different would be virtually impossible. ​



> ​> ​
> Think of the presidency as a
> ​ ​
> national-level chief of police, who commands the military,
> ​ ​
> selects supreme court justices, acts as influential cheerleader
> ​ ​
> and such, but still must answer to congress.
>

​In today's modern fast changing world some important decisions must be
made in just hours or even minutes and there is no time to consult with
congress. And it's not like congress has demonstrated great wisdom lately.​


> ​> ​
> Make it so that
> ​ ​
> he US will be OK with the occasional madman, criminal or
> ​ ​
> Alzheimer’s patient in that office with little permanent damage.
>

​That won't work because the president is Commander In Chief (somebody has
to be) and Nuclear Weapons can't be un-invented. So if the Commander In
Chief is a madman, criminal or
​ ​
Alzheimer’s patient we're all dead. And there is a 25.2% chance Donald
Trump will be the Commander In Chief in just 8 months.

 John K Clark
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