Eighty years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ushering in the nuclear age. Many analysts claimed those weapons forever changed the nature of war. They were wrong.

Two centuries earlier, Prussian theorist Carl von Clausewitz defined war as a violent clash of wills — a cyclical struggle of action, reaction, chance, and chaos. That description fits every era, from Thucydides to today.

Putin has nothing to lose by threatening to use nuclear weapons. He has everything to lose by actually using them.

The nature of war doesn’t change. What does change is its character, shaped by technology, geography, and culture. Nuclear weapons altered that character profoundly, preventing a U.S.-Soviet clash but never abolishing Clausewitz’s law of the battlefield.

From hot to cold

After 1945, nukes put a ceiling on global conflict. Compare the bloodletting between 1914 and 1945 with the relative restraint that followed. Fear of annihilation imposed boundaries.

Cold War strategy revolved around the “escalation ladder.” NATO knew it could not match Soviet conventional strength in Europe, so U.S. planners threatened to climb the rungs:

Tactical nukes: Battlefield use against enemy units nearby.Theater nukes: Regional strikes on key military targets.Strategic nukes: Long-range strikes on an enemy’s homeland.

At first, Washington believed it had escalation dominance, but that illusion collapsed in the 1970s as Moscow built powerful counterforce weapons and theater nukes. America’s fallback was no longer credible.

The U.S. answered with modernization — Minuteman III, MX, and Trident missiles at the strategic level; Pershing II deployments in Europe at the theater level; and new conventional doctrines like AirLand Battle and the Navy’s Maritime Strategy. This layered approach restored balance.

From cold to frozen

With the Soviet Union’s collapse, nuclear centrality in U.S. policy faded. By 2010, the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review declared Russia no longer an adversary. Nuclear strategy atrophied.

Trump 43 reversed course, seeking to revitalize deterrence against a resurgent Moscow. Joe Biden returned to the Obama approach. Trump 45 has emphasized preventing Iran from joining the nuclear club, but strategy toward Russia remains unsettled.

Nuclear relevance today

Russia’s war in Ukraine reignited fears of nuclear escalation. Both Moscow and Washington maintain roughly 1,400 deployed warheads each, plus reserves. Thanks to satellite guidance, modern systems now strike with pinpoint accuracy. A smaller yield can achieve the destructive power once requiring a much larger blast. Some fear this makes nuclear weapons more “usable.”

RELATED: Trump’s Pentagon overhaul: Purging woke agendas, restoring readiness

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Could Putin employ a tactical nuke to break the stalemate? Possibly. Russia fields low-yield warheads and delivery systems like the Iskander-M (NATO code: SS-26 “Stone”). But Moscow also has advanced non-nuclear options — thermobaric bombs, massive bunker-busters, and electromagnetic pulse warheads capable of crippling electronics across miles. These weapons achieve nuclear-like psychological and operational effects without crossing the nuclear threshold.

So far, NATO aid to Ukraine has mirrored Soviet and Chinese support for North Vietnam — decisive but short of direct conflict. And Russia has escalated through massive conventional strikes on Ukraine’s power plants, command centers, and cities, deliberately raising the human and economic costs. The effect mirrors nuclear terror: darkness, disruption, and despair.

That’s why Putin has no military incentive to use actual nuclear weapons when his conventional arsenal achieves the same result.

Putin’s nuclear Rubicon

Technological advances have blurred the line between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, lowering the odds of Russia crossing the nuclear Rubicon. But Clausewitz warned that war always brings chance, uncertainty, and friction. Nuclear weapons magnify all three.

Putin can posture, threaten, and hint. But as one commentator put it: “He has nothing to lose by threatening to use nuclear weapons. He has everything to lose by actually using them.”

​Opinion & analysis, Nuclear war, Nuclear weapons, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Atomic bomb, Donald trump, Nuclear posture review, Strategy, Soviet union, Russia, Ukraine, War, Conventional weapons 

Police in Cape Coral, Florida, said officers responded just after 2 a.m. Wednesday to a burglary in progress at a home in the southeast part of the city.

Kyle Myvett told detectives he had gone to bed when his home security cameras alerted him to someone breaking into his vehicle, police said.

‘Thanks to a quick-thinking neighbor in his Batman pajamas, another burglary suspect was put behind bars.’

Presumably without a second to spare, Myvett never bothered to change out of his pajamas before going into superhero mode.

Yup, he was still dressed in his Batman PJs when he ventured outside to investigate — and observed the suspect rummaging through his truck, police said.

The suspect was identified as 20-year-old Justin Schimpl, police said.

Detectives determined that Schimpl allegedly broke into Myvett’s vehicle — as well as his neighbor’s vehicle — and stole multiple items, including two pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses valued at $300 each, a woman’s wristlet, cash, and more than $500 in gift cards, police said.

“Thanks to a quick-thinking neighbor in his Batman pajamas, another burglary suspect was put behind bars,” police said.

As you can see, not all heroes wear capes; sometimes their bedtime duds just don’t include them.

Image source: Cape Coral (Fla.) Police Department

Schimpl claimed another male was with him, but the name of that male changed multiple times, police said.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office helicopter as well as a Cape Coral Police Department K-9 searched the area, police said, but no other suspects were located.

Police said Schimpl was arrested and taken to the Lee County Jail on the following charges:

two counts of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance (unarmed), a third-degree felony;one count of burglary of an occupied dwelling, a second-degree felony;two counts of petit theft under $750, a first-degree misdemeanor from a prior conviction.

Jail records indicate the total bond is for $40,000; Schimpl’s next court date is Sept. 29.

Police also said Schimpl is “known to law enforcement from prior investigations.”

You certainly might say that. Here’s a look at Schimpl’s mug shots dating back over the last two years:

Image source: Lee County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

The charges against him from his previous arrests include:

weapon offense — missile into dwelling, vehicle, building, or aircraft;resist officer;battery;probation violation;drug possession;larceny — petit theft;grand theft of a firearm;dealing stolen property.

Jail records show he’s scheduled for a hearing on a charge of grand theft of a firearm on September 16.

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Failed presidential candidate Al Gore claimed in his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that the previous year, “as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is ‘falling off a cliff.’ One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years.”

Two years later, the climate alarmist told the Copenhagen Climate Conference that new research indicated there was “a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months could be completely ice free within the next five to seven years.”

It turns out Al Gore, whose fearmongering reportedly nets him $200,000 per speaking engagement, was not only wrong about a 20-foot rise in the global sea level “in the near future,” polar bear drownings, and the snows of Kilimanjaro, but also about the future of Arctic ice.

A paper published this month in the American Geophysical Union’s biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters indicated that over the past 20 years, “Arctic sea ice loss has slowed considerably, with no statistically significant decline in September sea ice area since 2005.”

This slowdown in the loss of Arctic sea ice was pronounced across all months of the year and could “plausibly” continue over the next decade.

The researchers behind the paper — from Columbia University and the University of Exeter — indicated that even with relatively high global temperatures, “climate modeling evidence suggests we should expect periods like this to occur somewhat frequently.”

RELATED: Netflix rebooting ‘Captain Planet’ to push pagan climate propaganda on new generation of kids

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Natural factors, variations in ocean currents in particular, have a tremendous impact in this arena — accelerating, slowing, or reversing ice loss — and have apparently served in recent decades to offset the impact of relatively high global temperatures.

This natural corrective is all the more critical as humans reduce their emissions.

‘Now the [natural] variability has switched to largely cancelling out sea ice loss.’

While the authors take for granted that ice loss over the past 50 years has been driven in part by “human-induced climate change,” they acknowledged that there was actually significant Arctic sea ice expansion during at least one other period of increasing anthropogenic greenhouse emissions — from the 1940s to the 1970s.

An increase in industrial aerosol emissions from North America and Europe reportedly helped cool the Arctic in the mid-20th century. The very phase-out of exhaust — particularly sulfur emissions — from ships that some environmentalists advocated for appears to have “contributed to enhanced global and Arctic warming since 2020,” said the paper.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office indicated that in 2020, new international shipping regulations “drastically” cut sulfur emissions from ships. The exhaust they previously created — reflective clouds called “ship tracks” — had long reflected sunlight back into space, thereby cooling the planet.

“It is surprising, when there is a current debate about whether global warming is accelerating, that we’re talking about a slowdown,” Mark England, the researcher who led the study, told the Guardian.

While willing to admit the alarmism of yesteryear was bunkum, England still was sure to tinge his forecast with pessimism.

RELATED: The climate cult is brainwashing your kids — and you’re paying for it

Photo by Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

“The good news is that 10 to 15 years ago when sea ice loss was accelerating, some people were talking about an ice-free Arctic before 2020,” said England. “But now the [natural] variability has switched to largely cancelling out sea ice loss. It has bought us a bit more time, but it is a temporary reprieve — when it ends, it isn’t good news.”

England emphasized the need to maintain a sense of urgency and alarm, stating, “Climate change is unequivocally real, human-driven, and continues to pose serious threats. The fundamental science and urgency for climate action remain unchanged.”

While Arctic ice loss has slowed, the Antarctic has been gaining ice in recent years.

According to a 2023 study published in the European Geosciences Union’s peer-reviewed journal the Cryosphere, the Antarctic ice shelf area grew by 2048.27 square miles between 2009 and 2019, gaining 661 gigatonnes of ice mass “with 18 ice shelves retreating and 16 larger shelves growing in area.”

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​Science, Arctic, Ice, Climate, Weather, Earth, Arctic ice, Ice sheets, Glaciers, Climate alarmism, Climate change, Global warming, Hoax, Politics 

The New York Times recently published an article attempting to recast the events of Jan. 6, 2021, through the lens of prosecutors who lost their jobs following President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office. The piece depicts these lawyers as martyrs in a political purge, forced to leave behind diplomas and personal items as though they were casualties of injustice.

Yet this framing fundamentally ignores the real devastation that flowed from the government’s handling of January 6: families destroyed, children traumatized, and ordinary Americans subjected to years of aggressive and politicized prosecution.

Prosecutors were not martyrs. They were the instruments of a system that made martyrs out of ordinary citizens.

Those of us who have worked directly with these families have seen firsthand the long-term impact of the Department of Justice’s unprecedented approach. History cannot be rewritten to cast prosecutors as victims while erasing the lives they targeted from public memory.

The forgotten victims

The most overlooked victims of January 6 have been the children of defendants. These young people endured traumatic government raids that remain etched into their memories. Many remember predawn operations when flash-bang devices exploded inside their homes.

They recall doors being battered down, glass shattering, and heavily armed agents entering their bedrooms. They watched their mothers cry, attempting to hold families together as fathers were taken away in handcuffs. In certain cases, both parents were removed, leaving children to wonder if they would ever see their families whole again.

This was not a foreign dictatorship. It happened in the United States. These tactics, carried out against families who posed no threat, inflicted deep and lasting harm on innocent children. Yet the prosecutors who initiated these cases are now presented as political casualties.

That is an inversion of reality. They were not martyrs. They were the instruments of a system that made martyrs out of ordinary citizens.

The tragedy of Matthew Perna

The case of Matthew Perna illustrates the human toll of this prosecutorial overreach. Perna entered the Capitol, recorded video, and left without committing violence or destruction. Nevertheless, prosecutors pursued severe charges against him, including the application of a “terrorism enhancement” that would have drastically increased his sentence. Media outlets amplified the narrative, branding him as a threat to the nation.

The weight of this combined persecution proved too much for Perna. Before sentencing, he took his own life. His story exposes both the cruelty of the government’s approach and the complicity of media institutions that reinforced it. Today, prosecutors involved in such cases seek sympathy for their professional losses, while families like Matthew’s continue to grieve irreparable personal losses.

An egregious double standard

The broader context highlights a political double standard. Democrats describe January 6 as one of the darkest days in American history. Yet the riots of 2020 — federal courthouses attacked, businesses destroyed, police assaulted, communities set ablaze — are routinely called “mostly peaceful.”

The murder of retired police captain David Dorn, killed on livestream while defending his community, generated little lasting outrage. Entire cities endured months of chaos, but few faced consequences comparable to the sweeping prosecutions unleashed against January 6 participants. Where were the terrorism enhancements then? Where were the years-long investigations, the solitary confinement, the relentless media coverage?

The truth is straightforward: Unrest associated with the political left is minimized or excused. Protests involving Trump supporters are magnified into terrorism. This inconsistency erodes public trust in equal justice under the law.

A critical course correction

Against this backdrop, the decisions by Attorney General Pam Bondi and special prosecutor Ed Martin should be recognized for what they are: efforts to restore fairness to a corrupt system. Bondi took decisive action to remove prosecutors who had shown an inability to separate justice from politics.

Martin, who himself witnessed the events of January 6, understood that Americans cannot be criminalized simply for supporting a particular political movement. His leadership in ending the ongoing persecution of defendants brought accountability to those who had turned prosecutions into a political weapon.

The New York Times calls this a “purge.” A more accurate description is a course correction — an attempt to re-establish integrity in the Department of Justice and reaffirm that justice must not serve partisan ends.

The true victims of January 6 were not federal prosecutors. They were the more than 1,500 Americans caught in the dragnet of politicized charges. They were the families left bankrupt and broken. They were the children who still wake with nightmares of flash-bangs and broken doors. They were people like Matthew Perna, who lost hope under the crushing weight of unjust treatment.

They were also President Trump, the first lady, their son Barron, and allies who endured years of politicized investigations, predawn raids, tanks in neighborhoods, and heavily armed SWAT teams at their doors. These were the consequences of a government determined to use its vast powers not against criminals, but against political opponents.

Setting history straight

We must ensure that these truths are not forgotten. We cannot allow prosecutors to rewrite history by presenting themselves as martyrs. We cannot permit the suffering of families, the cries of children separated from their parents, or the suicide of Matthew Perna to be erased from public consciousness.

RELATED: Exclusive: Justice for victim’s severe injuries is elusive after he was shot point-blank by police on Jan. 6

Photo by Suspended Image via Getty Images

Justice in America must return to its foundational principle: fairness for all citizens, regardless of political affiliation. Until that principle is restored, we must continue to speak out and to stand with those whose lives were devastated by the misuse of government power.

This is not about revenge. It is about truth. It is not about politics. It is about families. And it is not about power. It is about ensuring that no American child ever again experiences the terror of waking to flash-bangs, shattered doors, and the loss of their parents over politics.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Jan 6, January 6, January 6 victims, January 6th capitol riot, Jan 6 riot, Truth about jan 6, Pardons, Matthew perna, Department of justice, Justice department, Weaponized justice, Prosecutors, Victims 

Peter Thiel might be the biggest head-scratcher in Silicon Valley. He’s a billionaire, a Trump-Vance-supporting Republican, a married gay man, a transhumanism enthusiast, and … drum roll … a “Christian.”

He’s publicly declared that Christianity is true and that Christ is the best role model; he’s deeply involved in various Christian organizations; and yet he’s openly admitted his affinity for transhumanism, believing that the future of humanity is a world where man conquers mortality by fusing with technology. It’s a twisted, human-centric version of the transformed, glorified body Christians are promised after death, says BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey.

Recently Thiel has been in the headlines for his seminars on the Antichrist, which are a bizarre blend of theology and his controversial views on technology and transhumanism. In short, Thiel speculates that Revelation’s beast will be deeply connected to artificial intelligence. Whether a human leveraging AI for control, a pseudo-human system, or an AI-driven global order, Thiel is confident that artificial intelligence will play a key role in the end times.

And he’s not the first to suggest this. The idea that AI and the Antichrist are irrevocably connected — and maybe even synonymous — is a theory that has gained traction in recent years. When you think about it, the proposition isn’t all that crazy. AI’s capacity for global control, deception, economic dominance through digital systems, and false promises of salvation uncannily mirrors Revelation’s description of the Antichrist’s deceptive, totalitarian rule.

Despite Thiel’s theological waywardness, is there merit to his Antichrist warnings? Should we take him seriously?

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey dove into Thiel’s Antichrist theory on a recent episode of “Relatable.” Her conclusion? It’s complicated.

In an interview with New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on the “Interesting Times” podcast, Thiel described the Antichrist as “a potential systemic threat rather than a literal individual, suggesting it could manifest as a one-world totalitarian state that promises peace and safety but suppresses freedom,” says Allie.

He explained that the Antichrist might weaponize fearmongering about technology’s dangers, like rogue AI, to trick people into accepting a powerful, centralized (likely AI-enabled) authority. In other words, he (or it) would convince the globe that the only way to avoid technology-induced apocalyptic scenarios and ensure safety and peace for all is to consolidate power, including technological power, under a global regime.

But some have noticed a strange incongruence. Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies, which develops and produces the very types of technology he claims the Antichrist could wield against humanity.

Douthat called him out on this contradiction in their interview. “You’re an investor in AI; you’re deeply invested in Palantir, in military technology, in technologies of surveillance, in technologies of warfare, and so on, right? And it just seems to me that when you tell me a story about the Antichrist coming to power and using the fear of technological change to sort of impose order on the world, I feel like that Antichrist would maybe be using the tools that you are building,” he said.

Another glaring contradiction is Thiel’s support for transhumanism — the merging of man and machine to achieve immortality. This is, again, the very type of technology he warns could be monopolized and weaponized by the Antichrist.

What gives?

When Allie heard Thiel’s Antichrist theory, her red flag immediately went up. Thiel’s prediction seems to suggest that because the Antichrist will promote “technological stagnation” in order to gather power to himself, the best way to prevent such a scenario is to continue investing and advancing technology — even merging with it.

“It is interesting and maybe questionable that someone who makes a lot of money through technology would say that stopping technological innovation is actually going to, you know, usher in the Antichrist,” she says.

But more importantly, does Thiel’s prediction square with scripture’s accounts of the Antichrist?

The Bible outlines the Antichrist as a “man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2) who will exercise authority over “every tribe and people and language and nation” (Revelation 13) and eventually declare himself God. He is the evil harbinger of Christ’s second coming.

“So the debate that Peter Thiel is wading into is what is the means by which this person will be able to convince so many people that he is powerful and needs to have all this authority,” says Allie.

“Is it possible that this person uses the threat and the fear of AI-powered Armageddon to gain his power? I would say that is possible. … But is he some kind of metaphor for technological stagnation or climate change or whatever it is? No. [The Antichrist] is an actual man,” she explains.

“I do think it’s interesting that Peter Thiel is talking about something like this. I would recommend that he and every single person get right with God.”

To hear more on Thiel’s Antichrist theories and Allie’s thorough analysis, watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Blazetv, Blaze media, Peter thiel, Antichrist, End times, Revelation, Christianity