>>>>Woke up today from my phone going berserk saying their is an inbound missile heading here and that the message was not a test. So much for my nice peaceful Saturday snooze...
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>>>First and foremost, glad it was a false alarm and glad there was no actual issue. (Though I'm sure it created widespread panic)
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>>>Second, the latest news pointed to the false alarm being human error, and the 38 minute delay in sending a false alarm correction/update was a flaw in the alert system.
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>>>
>>>Well, I've got something to say about point #2 - for months we've heard again and again about how people are concerned that an emotionally unstable president having such easy access to nuclear launch buttons. Well, I won't say their fears are unjustified - but hopefully you can see the irony here.
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>>But that irony should not lessen those fears toooooo much: remember the false alarm raised in the USSR (some flashes interpreted automatically as single rocket take off) not being answered in kind due to a very stable officer going AGAINST established protocol.
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>I understand your point (and I had forgotten about that one). My second point isn't tied to the first. My second point is that there's been all sorts of hyper-emotional focus on our current president, his mental state, and that he could "press a button at any minute". This incident should serve as a sober and cautionary tale to those who have chosen to focus on just the president.

Another way to look at this Kevin is thankfully Trump was playing golf. There is no question that Trump shows erratic behavior and you see this all the time when he has to think on-the-fly ..combine that with his quick-decisions that go against what even his own advisors say (he listens to know one) and you have a ticking time bomb. A billionaire with no concept of empathy and a racist disregard for humanity who looks up to dictators. Lucky for us that he, rather than address the problem, he finished his round of golf in Florida on his 120th taxpayer funded vacation day in less than a year - but did take the time to tweet about the 'fake news'. So either a) no one told him b) told him and he didn't care c) was told right away it was false alert. Whatever the case his reaction / response was nothing. 'Nothing' in his case is probably the best possible outcome for Trump here - but is that really acceptable from a realistic standpoint?
Meanwhile there appeared to be a far bit of panic here. All the TV and radio stations blasted the message - even saying if you were driving to stop where ever you were and find shelter or hit the ground. My cell alert went off so I turned on a local radio station and herd the alerts going off. ...stepped outside on the lanai - no sirens going off. 2 minutes and no sirens I figured it was false alarm at that point - but many people did not think of that. I've heard sirens before and in December they announced that for the first time since the 80's they're using them for missile warning sirens - they'd only been for tsunami warnings and other natural disasters - but since I did not hear them I figured all was ok. Still a rather nerve racking few minutes - my plan was to go down a storm drain in hopes of at least avoiding the blast.