I. Terrifying Nuke Near Misses
This is a continuation of nuclear near misses following the release of two H-bombs from a B-52 flying over North Carolina.
1965: Fire in a Titan II silo kills 53 people in Arkansas
1966: A bomber laden with nukes breaks apart in midair showering a Spanish town with radioactive debris.
1968: The crash of a B-52 in Greenland spreads radioactive parts over three square miles.
1970: A Sandia National Laboratory safety expert demonstrates how "failsafe" nukes could detonate under extreme heat and stress.
1977: One of President Carter's military advisers is stunned by a briefing on the nation's nuclear war plan: "The president would be left with two or three meaningless choices that he might have to make within 10 minutes."
1979: A technician uploads a war games simulation to NORAD's computers, which signal a massive Soviet nuclear launch. Officials prepare for war. A false alarm is declared only after ground radars fail to detect any missiles and the first strikes never materialize. A flawed computer chip creates two similar scares the following year.
1980: A maintenance error causes the explosion of a Titan II missile in Arkansas, killing one, injuring 21, and hurling the warhead 200 yards.
1984: President Reagan in a radio sound check: "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
1995: The launch of a Norwegian weather rocket convinces the Kremlin that Russia is under attack by the United States. President Boris Yeltsin nearly orders a retaliatory strike.
2003: Half of the Air Force's nuclear weapons units fail safety inspections, despite a three-day notice.
2006: Minuteman III nose cone assemblies are shipped to Taiwan, where they sit for two years before the Air Force acknowledges the error.
Another post carrying this listing of nuclear near misses through 2014 will follow.
II. A Mind-Bogglingly Big Military
This post continues a series of posts on the cost, spread and reach of the Pentagon. The information in this post goes back to the excellent eight-page special on military spending found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones.
"The $3.7 trillion federal budget breaks down into mandatory spending -- benefits guaranteed the American people, such as Social Security and Medicare -- and discretionary spending -- programs that, at least in theory, can be cut. In 2013, more than half of all discretionary spending (and one-fifth of total spending) went to defense, including the Pentagon, veterans' benefits, and the nuclear weapons arsenal." The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart of discretionary spending, and for the most recent fiscal year, the Pentagon budget consumes 54% of discretionary spending.
The Mother Jones breakdown of spending for FY 2013 uses circles: Mandatory spending in red; Discretionary spending in orange; and Classified spending in black. The letters M, D and C will be used to distinguish among Mandatory, Discretionary and Classified spending.
1. Social Security (M) - $813 billion.
2. Defense (D) - $652 billion.
3. Medicare (M) - $504 billion.
4. TANF and income security (M) - $392 billion.
5. Medicaid (M) - $267 billion.
6. Net interest on debt (M) - $223 billion.
7. Veterans (D) - $140 billion.
8. SNAP and food assistance (M) - $105 billion.
9. Transportation (D) - $91 billion.
10. Education (D) - $74 billion.
11. Homeland security (D) - $55 billion.
12. CIA, NSA, and "black budget" (C) - $53 billion.
13. Housing assistance (D) - $44 billion.
14. Natural resources and environment (D) - $35 billion.
15. Science, technology, and space (D) - $31 billion.
16. Community and regional development (D) - $27 billion.
17. International aid (D) - $26 billion.
18. Farm subsidies (M) - $22 billion.
19. Energy (D) - $10 billion.
20. Children's health insurance (M) - $10 billion.
The next posts on this subject will deal with broader aspects of military spending and will be followed by individualized spending items.
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