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John Oliver on America's horrifyingly insecure nuclear arsenal

Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. Before coming to Vox in 2014, he edited TP Ideas, a section of Think Progress devoted to the ideas shaping our political world.

The United States has more than 4,000 nuclear weapons — and is really, really bad at taking care of them. Among other terrifying incidents, a plane flying over North Carolina in 1961 fell apart and accidentally dropped two nuclear bombs over Goldsboro. To this day, the military still uses computers that run giant floppy disks as part of the nuclear launch process.

This darkly funny, deeply terrifying state of affairs is ripe for satire. So watch John Oliver's characteristically clever take in this issue, which includes references to Oregon Trail, War Games, and a bizarrely relevant incident involving a Beatles cover band at a Mexican restaurant in Moscow.


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