The recent attempted Coup in Turkey has given fodder to the anti-nuclear movement given the potential that Incirlik Airbase may have US Nuclear weapons. The usual people are already being allowed to speak by the media, with the New Yorker running an article by Eric Schlosser. And one can't argue that there may be nukes at Incirlik and if there are they would be B-61s since B-61s are the only tactical nuclear free-fall bombs left in the arsenal.

But the one thing both Schlosser and Han's Kristensen don't mention is the command and control systems used to prevent unauthorized use of these bombs. They made mention of the fact that when we had Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey, the missiles were operated by Turkish military units. But the warhead on top could only be released by the US Air Force Liaison officer assigned to the unit.

Going back to the early 60s, our bombs were equiped with a Permissive Action Link (PAL). In the early years this was a very special pad lock that when installed blocked key functions of the bomb (meaning it couldn't detonate). Complete equipping of all european based nuclear weapons was completed in September of 1962 (one of the first orders of JFK). Over the decades these devices have been significantly improved.  Where the originals were padlocks, the present ones are actually embedded within the bomb and are thus impossible to bypass. Modern nuclear weapon controls are powered by radio-isotopes, have external command and control links. duel release codes, etc. As of the late 80s a 12 digit code had to be inserted, and you had a limited number of tries before the bomb self destructed key components.

Now some would like to say that all anyone has to do is drop the bomb, or set it on fire, to cause an explosion. But that is where the bombs presently in stockpile make this impossible. Since the late 80s the newest models of the B-61 have been using insensitive high explosives. The bomb could be dropped into a blast furnace from 20 stories up and it would not set the bomb off. Thus even if someone was to through thermite grenades into the storage bunker for the bombs they wouldn't cause a detonation. And the move the bombs off site would require first the defeating of the 1,000 American troops guarding the airbase and then removing the bombs without setting off the security systems. Security systems that would damage key components of the bomb's detonation system if any tampering is detected. And of course while all this is happening additional American units (airborne or seaborne) would be moving to assist the troops at Incirlik. This would not be Benghazi.

The news from France tonight is grim. At least 70 dead and well over a hundred injured when a truck driver deliberately drove his vehicle into a crowd of people watching fireworks. The driver was then killed by French Police, though we do not know the specifics. Did he try to run down the Police and was shot through the windshield, or did he exit the vehicle with a weapon as some have reported. And of course no information on whether he was white (european) or some other nationality. But the most important fact is he didn't use an assault weapon. This killing that exceeds the Orlando killing by nearly 50% will never be mentioned by those who scream about mass killings in the United States. Because those killings are done by guns, not by a delivery truck. In the end France has probably seen more people killed in mass attacks in the last two years then in the previous 20.

Update: The driver had opened fire on the Police and civilians, and after he was killed, the Police found then other additional weapons and grenades in the truck.

Some people have remarked on the fact Obama made this statement at the ceremony for the officers ambushed during a Black Lives Matter protest. Obama, “We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer, or even a book.” A number of people took issue with him turning the ceremony into a gun control event, while others thought the comment was just rather strange. Yet this is a recurring theme of Obama for the last two years or more.
 
On October 27 2015, at a law enforcement gathering in Chicago Obama said that “It is easier for a lot of young people in this city and [communities around the country] to buy a gun than it is to buy a book.”
 
At Benedict College, Columbia. S.C., March 6, 2015. “And as long as you can go into some neighborhoods and it is easier for you to buy a firearm than it is for you to buy a book, there are neighborhoods where it’s easier for you to buy a handgun and clips than it is for you to buy a fresh vegetable — as long as that’s the case, we’re going to continue to see unnecessary violence.”
 
And there were probably other occurrences further back. In point of fact the statement “that’s its easier to buy a gun then <blank>,” can be traced as far back as a Daily Beast article following the Newtown shooting of 2012. And this author vaguely remembers an even earlier statement from a gun controlist politician “that it was easier to get a gun then a Six Pack of Beer”. In short its become the standard rhetoric from the gun control movement in the last decade even though people find it more ridiculous then memorable.

Its still on going, but we have had a serious situation in Dallas. If it wasn't bad enough that this morning we were being told that Police officers were leaving the Dallas Police Department for other departments, tonight we have had ten officers shot and three have died (plus one DART officer). Shot by two snipers from an elevated position near the Kennedy assassination site. 

It all started as a protest against Police violence, marking the recent shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge. Who ever these shooters were they waited until the protest reached a specific location, before, what appears, opening fire on the Police doing crowd control. Thus there were a lot of civilians in the area.