To think we're on the brink of WW3?

[TellMeStraight]

If the US and Russia become at war with each other, can we possibly stay out of it?

What if Donald Trump is president when it all kicks off?

Should I buy a gun? Or build a shelter? Or stock up on tins?

I am genuinely frightened.

[Teddy1970]

Exactly zoe if you grew up in the early 80s, then you can't forget the very real threat of a nuclear attack..I even remember my mum and dad talking about how they would protect us if they dropped the bomb..

[legotits]

Why did it always involve a mattress?

I never got that bit.

Were the 70s mattresses bomb proof?

[BombadierFritz]

and then with chernobyl there was all the 'how to avoid radiation' stuff for real as half of wales was covered in radioactive rain

[Teddy1970]

Ha, yes the bomb proof mattress!

[ftw]

The last Preppers thread I saw on Active, they were stocking up on olive oil and wine for a post-Brexit economy.

Maybe we need to show them this thread too so they can revise their plans.

I love the Preppers.

[Alabastard]

Sloped bomb proof mattress and a door. As if that was going to help!

If the powers decide to push the button and go nuclear there is fuck all you can do about it. It's highly unlikely. Mutually assured destruction and all that.

[legotits]

I remember thinking I hope they post the bomb.
By the time my Dad got the doors off the hinges, mattresses downstairs and the sheets taped to the windows the nuclear cloud would have cleared.
He still hadn't put the gate back on, years it was lent up.

[SailingThroughTime]

I was camping in South Wales that Easter as the cloud passed over from Chernobyl.

[AcrossthePond55]

Can the American government stop him doing really stupid things?

Short answer, yes. The American president cannot unilaterally institute major changes or military actions. Both need the approval of Congress.

What he can do is tie up Congress from doing what it should be doing because it has to spend its time vetoing him and fighting with each other (as he's bound to have some support for his stupidity in Congress) over his knucklehead ideas.

What he can do with his bile and vitriol against other races/religions/nations is piss off other countries to the point where they embargo or take punitive actions against the US, or actions which we would have to defend ourselves against.

The only way Trump could do some of the things he's promised is by trying to get martial law instituted and thereby give himself extraordinary powers, but even that has to be approved by Congress. It has happened before, Lincoln declared and Congress approved Martial Law during the Civil War. This is my real fear. Not that he'll start a global war, but that he'll incite violence within the country and that my fellow citizens will turn against each other. You already see it, with certain of his supporters saying that they're going to get their guns and 'start the revolution' if he loses, saying they will refuse to accept the results of the election, and threatening violence.

I don't think the rest of the world needs to fear Trump 1/10th as much as we here in the US do. At least not yet.

[SailingThroughTime]

If Donald Trump gets in he will be dead within a few months. He's quite an old chap.

[MagikarpetRide]

I'm largely sure if Trump get elected we'll be nuked for the twitter jokes long before Putin and him fall out.

[BombadierFritz]

I think Sailing meant he would have a "heart attack" aka be assassinated

[Bluesrunthegame]

I was concerned about tensions between the US and Russia until I read the John Pillinger article on this thread and I am now really quite tense. I knew about the build up of Russian weapons on its borders, close to Poland etc. I wasn't so aware of the US build up around the world, and the new nuclear weapons that are hugely damaging but not as bad as Hiroshima.

Putin seems to me to be posturing, I sincerely hope this is all he is doing and he has no sinister plans. Trump would be a disaster, and I'm not at all sure of a Hillary victory, I read this in the I newspaper today and it suggests the world is not out of the woods yet, Trump-wise: ipiece

[MrHannahSnell]

Shit OP I lived through the Cuban missile crisis. This is nothing by comparison. Don't believe everything you read in the papers

[Twofurrycats]

I remember the 80's info films for nuclear war, scared me witless. And even as a child i wasn't convinced that sitting under the stairs was a surefire winner even though we lived in an old house with very solid stone stairs. I also remember the prediction of another ice age - must have missed that while under the stairs.
I keep hoping that USA won't elect trump but then I remember dubya........
Putin I agree represents the Russian macho style of the Soviet days. Not particularly worried.
I have several friends who are convinced the end is nigh in an apocalypse style revelations nuclear attack. I talk to thrm about zombies

[Twofurrycats]

*them. Sound like a zombie now

[KitKats28]

Why the fuck does everyone seem to find this funny? There are Russian warships wandering round the Channel, that the Royal Navy has sent its ships out to monitor.

Taking the piss out of people who are genuinely worried about this does not make you big and clever.

[SusanneLinder]

I have lived through the 80's Cold War, Nostradamus's awful predictions, Rapturing and the Mayan Prophecy. I am still here and well 'ard.😂. Am no caring about Putin. Plus shopping done, and got my 6 monthly wine order through so have about 30 bottles. That should see me through a siege.

[legotits]

Who is taking the piss?

[MagikarpetRide]

I'm more worried about what's happening on our own soil than Russian boats that are on a known about convoy.

[Twofurrycats]

Kitkats28 I don't think people are taking the piss: more that they are saying been here before; still here

[cozietoesie]

I don't think people find it funny in the least, KitKats.