DDP Newsletter Vol. XXXVIII, No. 6
World events are moving at a breakneck pace. The threat of nuclear weapons use is probably the highest it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. The crisis was resolved when Nikita Khrushchev promised that that work on the missile sites would be halted and that the missiles already in Cuba would be returned to the Soviet Union. In return, President John F. Kennedy committed the U.S. to never invading Cuba. Kennedy also secretly promised to withdraw the nuclear-armed missiles that the U.S. had stationed in Turkey in previous years (https://tinyurl.com/45yx29vb). After this crisis, Kennedy started a nationwide civil defense program, with fallout shelters identified and stocked, and five million costly radiation detectors distributed to cities and town throughout the nation.
Stephen Jones, who has been involved in civil defense since 1979, writes: “The original purpose of our national Civil Defense was TO KEEP THE COUNTRY WORKING. The purpose of the detectors was to let people know when it was safe so recovery efforts and other essential work could begin. Now there are virtually no detectors out there dedicated to measuring nuclear fallout. In general, HAZMAT units are not equipped or trained for fallout danger.”
The most urgent need is for measuring instruments. SIRAD meters (self-indicating radiation alert dosimeters, https://tinyurl.com/4ttwfdrt, now called SEE RAD), created by the Department of Defense and tested by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security in 2007 (https://tinyurl.com/2s3ecm7h), but not deployed, address this problem. Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, advised us to alter the SIRAD format and go with the safe/not safe concept that we use in the “Oh Shucks!” Meters that we make, said Jones.
Radiation is invisible, but fallout particles are not, and seeing them on a shiny surface or white paper is a poor man’s meter.
Stephen Jones and associates have made more than 175,000 Oh Shucks! Meters, and distributed 20,000 free to first responders in 27 states. The strategy now is to use profits from public sales to enable them to give more away. Oh Shucks! Meters and ready-made Kearny Fallout Meters (KFMs) are available at radmonitors.com; these and calibrated meters from the U.S. Civil Defense program are available at ki4u.com. KFMs are designed to be homemakeable by children, from instructions in Cresson Kearny’s book Nuclear War Survival Skills. Jones observes, however, that only seniors these days are likely to have the manual skills to make and the ability to understand the KFM.
The U.S. government’s response to the threat is the dangerous “Get Inside, Stay Inside” campaign on public service announcements (PSAs), posters, and signs on public transit buses in New Jersey (https://tinyurl.com/4k6ay65j). The federal government’s ready.gov site repeats this same bad advice, to remain inside until officials say it is safe to emerge. Officials almost certainly lack knowledge or appropriate instruments, will not have them in your location even if they have a few, and probably will be unable to communicate.
The site lacks the advice that could save the most lives: DROP AND COVER if you see a bright flash. It only says that the flash can cause temporary blindness. There is no information about the effects of various doses of radiation, or the rapid decay curve. Fallout situations are survivable IF you know what to do. Government policy is that you don’t.
The government is basically advising Lockdown 2.0. The COVID pandemic fear shut the country down for a time, causing devastating damage, but a new pandemic scare might not work. Jones suggests that it is not ignorance that is causing government to use civil defense to harm the public. “Our enemies know that panic will do more damage than nuclear bombs. In fact, nuclear bombs will be very ineffective against a country, such as Russia, that is prepared to survive a nuclear attack.”
The ”Get Inside, Stay Inside” message “is being promoted by our enemies and useful idiots,” Jones states. He compares it with On the Beach, which he believes to have been enemy propaganda masquerading as a novel and a science fiction movie.
Nuclear saber-rattling is originating from the U.S., but Russia has clearly reminded the world of its retaliatory arsenal. The 1980s peaceniks have been remarkably quiet. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR.org) is still calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and on Oct 19 called for an end to NATO’s annual “Steadfast Noon” nuclear exercise (this year’s ended Oct 30). The mention of “de-escalation” does not include stopping shipments of conventional armaments or training Ukrainian troops. PSR wants to cut military spending by $100 billion because it doesn’t “doesn’t protect us from real threats like climate change, pandemics, or cyber-attacks.” Its key issues are “environmental justice,” DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and “renewable” energy (not nuclear).
Misinformation causing panic is the key issue. Cutting off access to energy, blocking useful work by DEI virtue signaling, or putting the whole country under house arrest because of fear of infection, climate change, or radiation can destroy the country. The last could be the most effective. Nuclear terror has been taught for decades.
The growing crisis is time to launch a nationwide expedient civil defense movement—the Nuclear War Survival Skills plan. Bring this to the attention of your local first responders. If an event sparks panic, existing instruments will quickly sell out. But life-saving knowledge is available to all, and the internet has enabled mass, virtually cost-free dissemination. Everyone can download and print out Nuclear War Survival Skills—and read at least the first 35 pages, NOW (oism.org/nwss) and can watch civil defense videos from the 1950s and 1960s (physiciansforcivildefense.org/videos.php). Let people know that the “Get Inside, Stay Inside” campaign is as bad as yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater.
You should also be sure to have basic survival items, such as: water and food of course; flashlights and lots of batteries; candles and matches; a battery-powered or crank-operated radio; plastic sheeting and duct tape in case you need to seal off doors and windows; a manual can-opener; dust masks (https://tinyurl.com/45e9etx8).
40th ANNUAL MEETING VIDEO
Stephen Jones’s presentation at DDP’s 40th annual meeting in Las Vegas is now available on our Rumble channel: https://rumble.com/v1z1t5g-civil-defense-update-2022-steve-jones.html. Shane Connor of ki4u.com also spoke about his website goodnewsnuke.com. “It’s not to sell you a product,” he said. “We’re going to be sold out. It’s about information that could make nuclear weapons 90% less lethal. We need to have it ready to disseminate at the time when people are ready to receive it.”
For the “numbers guy” in the audience, the “not safe” level on the OSM is about 200 rads, and the “oh shucks!” level (lethal without medical treatment) is 400–600 rads.
Jones’s Arizona Nuclear Plan is on youtube.com: search “roadman911.”