I think that is a terrific read. I am not through Gov.Brown's article in the New York Book Review of Books, but I m grateful to have received that email with that link to Perry's book.

I think it's a rare chance to get the history of the nuclear weapon race during the cold war up til today and it its into the recent discussion in magicsister's diary "Please, Bernie Supporters" of what the "real threats and dangers" that confront us in this election cycle are all about. What goes on in the Eastern European countries and the NATO activities there is just so far away... right?

I admit here that I have now come to the point and conclusion that I never would vote for either Trump or Hillary, but would engage in threatening a massive exodus from the Democratic Party before the convention in Philly and if Sanders doesn't get the nomination, I would leave the Democratic Party immediately afterwards and engage towards a strong movement/third party.

I don't care anymore to figure out if HRC is the lesser or the greater evil and if Trumpy-Dumpy is a full-blown, hot-aired, entertainment business entrepreneurial greedy monstrous bloviator, who will deflate very quickly, imo. The European "left" of course will "agree with HRC" and not help the US in pushing for the changes it needs to make. I wished it were not so, and European Social Democrats would indicate that they would feel more secure with a Sanders presidency. But that's against the rules for foreign politicians and public media.

Sanders seems to have woken up some things that have been buried apparently for over a century in the American people. They want government to work for them and don't care anymore about left and right and socialists or nationalists or patriotism. They don't want to be pushed to vote against their own interests out of fear anymore. At least I hope that would be the case.

Here just a a couple of summary paragraphs of that article:

My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a rare accounting of the last six decades of American policy in the new age of nuclear danger. Perry makes it clear that the danger of nuclear terrorism is great and that even Washington, D.C., is not safe from attack. In fact, he lays out a plausible scenario of how terrorists could fashion an improvised nuclear device and blow up the White House and Capitol Hill, killing more than 80,000 people and totally disrupting our society. Perry also warns that a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could occur—with devastating global impacts.

Since the book’s publication, the dangers identified by Perry have only intensified: the latest US defense budget proposes spending $1 trillion on nuclear modernization over the next several decades.9 This modernization plan contemplates a complete update of our nuclear triad, including new cruise missiles, nuclear submarines, ICBMs, and bombers. The Russian defense minister recently announced in response that Russia will “bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service.” This comes after President Putin revealed that Russia will add more than forty new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal.

And, just this month, as the US broke ground on a future missile defense site in Poland and formally activated a missile defense site in Romania, Putin warned: “Now after the placement of these missile defense elements, we have to think how to neutralize the threats for the security of the Russian Federation…”.

No one I have known, or have even heard of, has the management experience and the technical knowledge that William Perry brings to the subject of nuclear danger. Few have his wisdom and integrity. So why isn’t anyone paying attention to him? Why is fear of a nuclear catastrophe far from the minds of most Americans? And why does almost all of official Washington disagree with him and live in nuclear denial? Perry himself may provide the answer:

Our chief peril is that the poised nuclear doom, much of it hidden beneath the seas and in remote badlands, is too far out of the global public consciousness. Passivity shows broadly. Perhaps this is a matter of defeatism and its cohort, distraction. Perhaps for some it is largely a most primal human fear of facing the “unthinkable.” For others, it might be a welcoming of the illusion that there is or might be an acceptable missile defense against a nuclear attack. And for many it would seem to be the keeping of faith that nuclear deterrence will hold indefinitely—that leaders will always have accurate enough instantaneous knowledge, know the true context of events, and enjoy the good luck to avoid the most tragic of military miscalculations.

While many complain of the obvious dysfunction in Washington, few see the incomparably greater danger of “nuclear doom” because it is hidden and out of public consciousness. Despite an election year filled with commentary and debate, no one is discussing the major issues that trouble Perry. It is another example of the rigid conformity that often dominates public discourse. Long ago, I saw this in the Vietnam War and later in the invasion of Iraq: intelligent people were doing mindless—and catastrophic—things. “Sleepwalking” is the term historians now use for the stupidities that got European leaders into World War I and for the mess they unleashed at Versailles. And sleepwalking still continues as NATO and Russia trade epithets and build their armies and Moscow and Washington modernize their nuclear overkill. A new cold war.

Fortunately, Bill Perry is not sleepwalking and he is telling us, in My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, to wake up before it is too late. Anyone can begin by reading his book.

Oh, yes, I believe HRC would sleepwalk stubbornly into a military confrontation with Russia. How would she not, after all that hard work she had done her whole life to gain political power. Giving that up would be like being a loser, and no, she wouldn't want to be the first female presumed President that is a loser.

People, can you stop this from happening, please?