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Potassium iodide distributors have a friend on Twitter:
A Twitter battle over the size of each "nuclear button" possessed by President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un has spiked sales of a drug that protects against radiation poisoning.
Troy Jones, who runs the website www.nukepills.com, said demand for potassium iodide soared last week, after Trump tweeted that he had a "much bigger & more powerful" button than Kim — a statement that raised new fears about an escalating threat of nuclear war. "On Jan. 2, I basically got in a month's supply of potassium iodide and I sold out in 48 hours," said Jones, 53, who is a top distributor of the drug in the United States. His Mooresville, N.C., firm sells all three types of the product approved by the Food and Drug Administration. No prescription is required.
In that two-day period, Jones said, he shipped about 140,000 doses of potassium iodide, also known as KI, which blocks the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine and protects against the risk of cancer. Without the tweet, he typically would have sent out about 8,400 doses to private individuals, he said. Jones also sells to government agencies, hospitals and universities, which aren't included in that count.
Alan Morris, president of the Williamsburg, Va.-based pharmaceutical firm Anbex Inc., which distributes potassium iodide, said he's seen a bump in demand, too. "We are a wonderful barometer of the level of anxiety in the country," said Morris.
Note: A comment on the article claims that Nukepills is massively overcharging for the substance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:11PM (3 children)
North Korea has nukes but it's more for defense (look at what happened to Libya, Iraq, Syria, etc). NK don't have enough to successfully hit more than a few US cities. There'll still be plenty of safe places for survivors to go to if a US city is hit.
The issue is whether Russia and China would be dragged into the war.
There's likely to be no issue of that if Kim strikes first. China has already made it quite clear that North Korea is on their own if they strike first, China will only get involved if the USA hits NK first: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-warns-north-korea-youre-on-your-own-if-you-go-after-the-us/2017/08/11/a01a4396-7e68-11e7-9026-4a0a64977c92_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
Similarly Putin is unlikely to launch his nukes just because Kim pushes his button. Why would he? If Kim hits the USA it just helps Russia.
But Kim doesn't seem to be an idiot. All his moves so far have been rational for a dictator who wants to stay in power. And look at him, he's fat, he's not one of those Spartan types, he's enjoying his lifestyle and the nukes are to help him keep things that way. If he strikes first, that's the end of his nice lifestyle. But if he didn't get nukes the US might end him (the USA had already made threats). He's unlikely to push the button first as long as he's not backed into a corner - e.g. make him look too weak, so he is in danger from an "internal takeover", etc.
The real danger is Trump. Has Trump figured out the rules of the game and will he actually play by them? If Trump strikes first, would he even care about the consequences? If he gets impeached and can't pardon himself would he give a launch order?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:52PM
Like any good Bond movie, who strikes first will be masked by multiple layers of subterfuge.
I agree, Kim has no real motivation to do anything other than demonstrate he's capable, but... what's the reliability of his command and control structure? Anything less than six sigma, and I'm seriously concerned - and I seriously doubt he's got that kind of reliability in his political/military power pyramid. So, then, the question becomes: does anybody who can subvert his nuclear capability have motivation to launch?
As you say, an apparent NK first strike _shouldn't_ trigger global armageddon, but... I actually doubt that the US command and control structure is seven sigma reliable against opponent-state sponsored subversion, and with over 1400 warheads on tap, even 99.9999981% reliability doesn't sound so great to me...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday January 13 2018, @08:33PM (1 child)
With NK's foreseeable capabilities, they will NOT have a first strike capability. The US has the ability to shoot down a maybe two or three missiles at once, plus the THAD for point defense against leakers.
How the norks get away with a first srtike:
Kim is crazy enough to just airburst some very dirty device high above his own territory or out to sea, knowing that the wind will carry it east, away from China, Russia, over and beyond Japan, towards North America.
Now is that a first strike?
Would nuclear retaliation just make matters worse?
Would Kim calculate he could get away with this?
He's already tested nuclear warheads under his tottering mountain, exposed his own population to radiation.
The US should probably be stocking up on MOABs and MOPs, for a non nuclear response.
Because even if Kim gets lucky and lands nuclear warhead on Bangor Trident Base which holds about 25% of all US nuclear weapons (and a stone's throw from Seattle, which never would be missed) there are still people in this world so fearful of nuclear strikes they would lobby for no nuclear response.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @07:24PM
It would be good to analyze why North Korea takes the stance it does.
First, in 1950[1], "The South has just invaded the North" were the words of Asia reporter John Gunther. [google.com]
Forgotten History of the War on Korea [tucradio.org] 25 minute MP3 (Even less with some media player speedup)
In the early 1950s, USA.gov bombed every single city in North Korea.
Where the bombing analysis revealed that a city hadn't been totally destroyed, USA.gov went back and bombed the rubble.
When USA.gov ran out of cities to bomb, it bombed villages.
When USA.gov ran out of villages to bomb, it considered -any- structure to be a viable target.
USA.gov was down to bombing outhouses.
By the time that USA.gov was through with North Korea, there wasn't a single inhabitable structure in the place.
The people were down to digging holes and trying to find something with which to cover those so that they could pile dirt on top in an effort to try to get out of the brutal weather there and away from USA.gov bombs.
...and, of course, USA.gov was dropping firebombs on civilians, which is its habit.
N.B. Let me remind you here that waging war on non-combatants is a crime.
USA.gov then decided that that wasn't enough and it bombed a giant dam, flooding inhabited areas, killing farmers and destroying crops.
State of Fear: How History’s Deadliest Bombing Campaign Created Today’s Crisis in Korea [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [counterpunch.org]
...and with North Korea sharing a border with China and USSR/Russia, if it's not clear to you that the US war against North Korea was a proxy war meant to demonstrate USA's willingness to do mass murder, your perceptive skills are seriously lacking.
[1] ...and when South Korea tried to do its truth and reconciliation thing, they discovered mass graves where anti-Capitalist South Koreans had been murdered by the tens of thousands (as was done a decade later in Indonesia, with over 1 million dead there).
The truth turned out to be just too awful and the South Koreans stopped the process.
So, what USA.gov should do is stop being such a murderous asshole.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]