Although I don't recall having "ducked and covered" in elementary school, it was at least on the chronological heels of such foolishness that my generation grew up. Dr. Strangelove was less satire than a living nightmare for millions, but even then, I do recall that a nuclear "exchange" — that being the euphemism for worldwide thermonuclear destruction — seemed as likely to me as a breakout of permanent, worldwide peace.
Hence the nuclear arms race was m.a.d. in more than one sense of the word. On the upside, both the United States and Soviet Union had leaders who thought the use of nuclear weaponry was, well, unthinkable. Not once do I recall reading about a U.S. president or presidential candidate who fit this 2016 scenario: "Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked at one point if we had them why can't we use them."
Frightening ignorance like that would have had me ducking and covering. In fact, I may begin practicing now. The Washington Post:
"Russia on Wednesday conducted a final test of a nuclear-capable glider that flies at 20 times the speed of sound, President Vladimir Putin said, adding that the weapon will be included in the country’s arsenal next year. Putin described the successful test … as a 'wonderful, perfect New Year’s gift for the country.'"
Yes, it's a whole new missile gap, folks. "The new weapon, dubbed the Avangard, is of a type that the Pentagon has been both working on and worrying about as an arms race emerges among the United States, Russia and China." The damn thing is "so fast and agile," adds the Post, "it will be able to evade missile defenses for years to come."
And at the helm of the U.S. government is a paranoid, neurotic ignoramus who, somewhere in the darkest recesses of his diseased mind, is thinking we have nuclear weapons not to not use, but to use. Because we have them. The only thing preventing WW III, whose clock has now accelerated because of Russian ingenuity? Trump is Putin's cuddly puppet.
Should that loving relationship go sour, however, we'll be left with a paranoid, neurotic president who is always inclined, in extremis, to take the riskiest route. Under Trump's generalship, which as we know is superior to any general's, a U.S.-Russian skirmish anywhere in the world could swiftly morph into a thermonuclear crater. And it would mushroom from there.
And that is the reason I firmly hold to the opinion that impeaching and removing Donald J. Trump from the presidency is Job One. The world can't take a chance on the reining in of his inveterate impetuosity.