Thanks to reader Mikey.

This is rather long, so I'm just going to copy/paste the highlights.

Lynda

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August 13, 2025
by Oppose Zone

Snip

The Tsar Bomba test was set for October 30, 1961, over the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The fireball was so massive it almost touched the ground despite the high-altitude blast. It expanded to nearly six miles across, devouring everything beneath it in a wave of light and heat. The mushroom cloud rose over 40 miles into the atmosphere, reaching the mesosphere — so vast it could be seen 600 miles away. The shockwave circled the Earth three times. Wooden houses hundreds of miles from ground zero were obliterated. Structures 34 miles away were destroyed outright. People who saw it described the landscape being lit brighter than the sun. Windows shattered 560 miles away.

The message to the United States was clear: one bomb could erase your largest cities and paralyze the entire country.

What if it happened today?

The Tsar Bomba’s 50-megaton yield was over 3,000 times the power of the “Little Boy” bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If a modern variant were detonated over a major American city today, the first seconds would bring a level of destruction unmatched in human history.

The fireball would reach nearly six miles in diameter, vaporizing everything — buildings, vehicles, and human beings — in an instant. Temperatures at ground zero would soar to tens of millions of degrees, hotter than the surface of the sun. The blinding flash would ignite fires across hundreds of square miles. The blast wave, racing outward at over 1,500 miles per hour, would flatten skyscrapers, bridges, homes, and factories for at least 20 to 30 miles in every direction.

Winds stronger than any recorded hurricane would tear concrete and steel apart like paper. Anyone not instantly incinerated would be hurled into the air or crushed by collapsing structures. Fatal burns, shredded flesh, shattered bones, and blindness from the thermal flash would be common — and in the urban core, survival would be virtually impossible.

Within minutes, tens of thousands on the fringes of the blast would be left in agony — third-degree burns covering most of their bodies, deep lacerations from flying debris, crushed limbs, and internal bleeding. Hospitals would not exist. Emergency services would not respond. The survivors would be on their own, and their injuries would soon turn fatal without treatment.

Then the invisible killer would come.

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Radioactive fallout from the detonation would be carried for hundreds of miles by prevailing winds, raining death over entire regions. Cities spared the blast would become death zones as lethal particles poisoned the air, soil, rivers, and food supply. Livestock and crops would be contaminated. Drinking water would be deadly.

For decades, vast areas would be uninhabitable. Birth defects, cancers, and genetic mutations would afflict not only the survivors but their descendants.

The collapse of the nation

If the bomb struck New York, Washington, Los Angeles, or Chicago, the economic impact would be immediate and irreversible. The destruction of financial centers, government institutions, and critical infrastructure would collapse the stock market within minutes. Banks would fail. The currency would plummet. Inflation would explode. Supply chains for food, medicine, and energy would shatter.

Within days, tens of millions would flee the fallout zones. Entire states would empty. Refugee camps, if they could be set up, would be overwhelmed. Law enforcement would be powerless. Martial law would be declared. Violence over food, water, and medicine would erupt in city streets.

And then — nuclear winter.

Millions of tons of soot and radioactive ash would block sunlight for months or years. Temperatures worldwide would plunge. Growing seasons would shrink. Crops would fail. Famine would spread across continents. Even nations untouched by the blast would face starvation and collapse. Global trade would disintegrate. Wars over resources would follow.

If one Tsar Bomba — JUST ONE — struck the United States today, it would not merely destroy a city. It would trigger a chain reaction of death, hunger, disease, and war that would spiral far beyond America’s borders. It would cripple the planet’s climate, economy, and food supply. It would erase the global order.

And here is the truth no politician dares speak: the power to do this still exists. The missiles are still in their silos. The bombers are still on standby. The warheads are still waiting for the order.