A nuclear explosion creates several kinds of radioactive atoms:

• Any atoms that get split during nuclear fission will be radioactive — some extremely radioactive, some less so. These "fission products" make up the most radioactive byproducts of a nuclear explosion and are what we care the most about from a health perspective.

• Any fuel atoms (plutonium or uranium) that don't get fissioned will still be around, and are still radioactive (but not that radioactive compared to the other things on here — they have relatively long half-lives).

• Some fuel atoms (plutonium or uranium) will absorb neutrons and not fission, becoming heavier atoms, which are also radioactive. This is not a huge issue, but I'm just pointing it out for completeness.

• Atoms in the bomb or the environment which absorb neutrons can become artificially radioactive. This is called neutron activation. Depending on the atom in question, it might be only a little radioactive, or very radioactive. The health consequences can vary depending on the elements in question.

I think a substantial proportion of them do believe that, or enough of it for them to look the other way. Even the "moderate, educated" GOP I have spoken to in person seem to believe quite a bit of it — not the Satanism, but the culture war stuff about immigration, gender identity, Communism, etc. They might not have 100% of their minds corrupted by the brain worms of right-wing media, but they have enough...

They literally believe that Democrats worship Satan, want to murder babies, are conspiring to destroy Christianity, want to turn all children into trans Marxists, and and so on and so on. If you believe your enemies are literally evil then you have a lot less problem justifying anything that subverts them. Even the ones who don't believe in Satan believe that the goal of Democrats is to enforce Stalinist Communism on them. It is a belief system totally disconnected from reality.

If you want to see how they see things, watch some Fox News, and you'll dip into their upside-down world. They just do not live in the same world as the rest of us, and have achieved total "epistemic closure." Of course, they would see the Democrat view of them — proto-or-outright fascist extremists hell-bent on destroying democracy, duped into serving the interests of billionaires and corporations, almost hopelessly misled by both domestic and foreign extremists — as being equally invalid (despite it being pretty easy to document, but part of that "closure" is that they reject serious evidence, and embrace the "throw everything at the wall" style of conspiracy theorists).

It. Doesn't. Matter. Who. Caused. The. Accident.

The crime is Hit and Run. If she didn't do that, then the cause of the accident would matter. But she did, so it doesn't.

I wonder who you think my "group" is. I'm a progressive/liberal Democrat who generally supports Fullop and the rest of his slate. But I absolutely have a distaste for politicians who think they are "above the law" (which DeGise clearly does, as is evidenced by all of the other shady shit that came out after this debacle), and I have a deep distaste for cynical corruption (like nepotistic party politics) both because it is gross and because it decreases confidence in electoral democracy, which is deeply dangerous, especially at this moment. Everything she has done since the accident has said, loudly and clearly, that she is a piece of shit who should not be in power. The fact that nearly the entire city council and the mayor are willing to look the other way on this — because of the aforementioned Hudson County party machine politics — makes me sick of the whole bunch, and makes me fear that it gives an angle for other piece of shit politicians from the other party to get a foothold and push terrible policies. I also don't want someone in power who can't be held accountable because her daddy is an important person. I want my politicians accountable, sorry. I know, a really, truly radical idea, ain't it?

So yeah. I care about this. I also care because I have some bare standards for decency for politicians, and running someone over and not stopping to check if they are OK violates that. My uncle and aunt were victims of a hit and run years ago, and were crippled by it. It does not matter one bit to me whether they were at fault. What matters is that some asshole left them there to die. There's no excuse for it.

I wouldn't trust someone like that to watch my dog, much less have a voice in running my city. And separate from that, the corruption of it drags the entire city down. She has to go. I don't give a shit about someone on a bike running a red light. That's a thing that endangers primarily himself. What she did is anti-social. There's a huge difference.

If you can't see that, you're either her father, or a moron. I'm sorry.

> she just kept driving, probably in shock

She drove off without stopping or even slowing, and did not report it to the police for six hours. Shock does not last six hours. Do you think you would ever be in a legitimate situation where you'd run into a bicyclist, not stop, and then not bother to report it for half a day? If your answer is "yes" then you probably shouldn't be driving. I absolutely cannot see it.

That is not a little mistake. It's a serious crime. And it lends itself very well to the idea that she may have had some reason she didn't want to be in touch with police for a long time after she had been in the car.

Running a red light on a bike is a minor crime. Hit and run with an SUV is not a minor crime. Don't be a dummy.

not half as spooky as (almost) every other politician pretending it didn't happen because they are afraid of her even scarier father

one crooked politician doesn't scare me. an entire party of terrified politicians scares me.

if you live in a haunted hospital and you don't see a ghost, then you are probably the ghost, just fyi