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Yesterday I read Mitt Romney’s attack on the New-START treaty with Russia, which cuts back on both sides’ nuclear arsenals, and even though I don’t know much about this stuff I was left scratching my head. A commission can broadly amend the treaty? (Not likely.) We aren’t allowed to load ICBMs on bombers? (ICBMs don’t go on bombers, do they?) We aren’t allowed to convert ICBM silos into missile defense sites? (Do we even want to?) Etc. etc.

Well, it turns out it’s even worse than that. Fred Kaplan does know a lot about this stuff, and his epic takedown is here. There is, almost literally, not a single meaningful word in Romney’s entire piece. But I guess that’s a feature, not a bug. It’s a great bit of base pandering for the Republican Party’s 2012 primaries, and that’s pretty obviously what it’s aimed at.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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