John Oliver did a breakdown of America's domestic nuclear weapons' security on
Last Night This Week and the results were funny because John Oliver is funny but also a brutal reminder of the real dangers in defunding our country's infastructure.
Maybe we should be worrying about nuclear warheads a bit more—and not the ones in North Korea, Iran or Russia, but the ones we have here at home. America has around 4,800 nuclear warheads, which is more than enough not just to destroy earth, but to to provide Fourth of July fireworks for Martians. Some of our most powerful weapons are intercontinental ballistic missiles—"ICBMs," which is both an acronym and what you would say if you saw one coming at you [...] they are currently in silos in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. Let's start with Wyoming. How well are we taking care of those things?
He proceeded to show a clip from
60 Minutes with Lesley Stahl explaining that an outer security door cannot be closed because it is missing a part and must be held open with a crowbar jammed into it. But don't worry—they've put a "Danger" tag on the handle so you know not to go in there.
That is the crowbar and the "Danger" sign.
To be honest, repairs like that are less appropriate in a nuclear silo than they are in a divorced dad's condo. Why does the fridge open with string, daddy? And for the record it's not just their hardware that needs updating, it's their software too.
Here's an example of one of the
computers that can receive a launch order from the president.
The president of the United States.
And all of the information on this computer of is housed in, you guessed it—
Big floppy disks. The kind that people used to play Leisure Suit Larry on.
There is so much more to this story. Check out the rest of the video below. You'll laugh until you cry.