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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

At the time Twitter didn't exist, and Trump has - more than once - come close to declaring war on another country through Twitter.

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Nothing happening today is even comparable to the past events of a world where nuclear attacks were seen as a legitimate first strike option. There has been a lot of "doomsday time inflation," where inconsequential things today move the clock just as much as serious threats yesterday.

Trump wanted to nuke a hurricane.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-if-nuke-nuked-hurricane...

Trump has asked in the past why we have nuclear weapons if we don't use them.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-why-us-cant-use-n...

Trump, during a visit to the war memorial in Hawaii - had no idea what Pearl Harbor was about, at least according to one book:

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pearl-harbor-memorial-...

You don't believe a man this ignorant about such things, who is "commander in chief" and "carries the nuclear football" - ie, he is in command of our entire nuclear arsenal (let that sink in for a second) - you don't believe that the clock moving on a tweet of his nearly taking us to war (or anything of that nature) isn't a reason for it to move?

I don't think there is much of a correlation between Trump tweets, Trump thoughts, and Trump actions. Of course I could be proven wrong at any moment, but I would not be around any longer to observe it... In any case, judging how much panic should be had every time the President mouths off is something that nuclear physicists are not abnormally qualified for, at least not above anyone else. There really doesn't need to be a special panel of atomic scientists dedicated to reading Trump tweets.

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