January 13, 2018

No news is good news.

At the top of the NYT website right now: "No one is bombing Hawaii. An emergency alert saying a ballistic missile was heading toward the state caused panic. But it was a false alarm."

Linking to: "Alert About Missile Bound for Hawaii Was Sent in Error, Officials Say."

Look what people saw!



AND: I am trying to get my mind around the idea that my fellow Americans, in Hawaii today, lived through 20 or 40 minutes of believing that they were about to be nuked.

178 comments:

Guildofcannonballs said...

Heed it on down the line.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Whew! What a relief!

tcrosse said...

The shitholes strike back.

Achilles said...

Good thing Bill Clinton signed that treaty with North Korea giving them stuff so they would give up their nuclear program!

Virgil Hilts said...

Kudos to Drudge. He had false alarn up in big red letters within I think maybe 5 minutes of when it happened. Cannot think of a better way to get out urgent news.

Wince said...

"Let me ask you. When you get out there do you ever fear for your life?"

The Godfather said...

Who screwed up?

And how can we blame Trump?

YoungHegelian said...

Let's see how many get named & shamed & fired for this incredible fuck-up.

My preliminary guess: Zero.

Greg Hlatky said...

A Federal judge there declared an injunction on the missle.

Fernandinande said...

Ce n'est pas un exercice.

Francisco D said...

A nuclear tired ICBM would certainly turn the Hawaiian paradise into a shithole.

I guess that makes me a racist because Whites are a minority there.

OK. Let's say that Oklahoma City gets nuked. There's a lot of White conservatives in Oklahoma.

Would it be OK to call OKC a shithole then?

Francisco D said...

Make that nuclear tipped.

Damn autocorrect. Damn fingers.

rehajm said...

It was that leftie judge Ito immigration guy wasn’t it?

rehajm said...

‘Slide for more’ is a nice touch

rehajm said...

Given the number of angles lefties have tried just this week makes me think a Supreme is sick. A good one.

Rusty said...

"Officials" Can be real assholes.

AllenS said...

Time for Trump to reach into his bag of phrases, and tell a bunch of people involved in this: "You're fired."

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

How about some missile defenses now, fellas?

tcrosse said...

"Officials" Can be real assholes.

Officials can be officious.

Quaestor said...

Slide for more

More what? More shelter? More bullshit?

Jimmy said...

After I received alert, took 10 minutes for @tulsigabbard to tell us it was false. 38 minutes for Hawaii EMA to send another text to say same thing. People at the beach, total panic. No sirens, just the text.
On twitter now, people are blaming Trump, LOL. Hawaii EMA sent text. State agency. And NO ONE will be fired or punished for it.
Hundreds of thousands of people are told they are going to die in under 30 minutes. Seek shelter, like under a desk?

tim in vermont said...

Maybe they were watching CNN and just assumed by the hysterics that a missile was inbound?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Was it a fuck up or was the system hacked? How terrifying. For 35 minutes a million people thought they would die soon. Imagine if New Yorkers got that text during rush hour.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Trump is a genius! What better way to get people behind his aggressive policy towards NK than to scare the shit out of them. Reality is harsh.

gspencer said...

Incoming!

Nope, only Al Gore on a visit,

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Sen. Tulsi Gabbert (sp) is blaming Trump and calling for talks with NK with no preconditions. Yes, that will keep us safe.

gspencer said...

Imagine if New Yorkers got that text on the 3d of the month when SSA deposits are made,

Jimmy said...

Tulsi Gabbard is actually a bit to the right of most Dems in this state. But still takes every opportunity to bash Trump. No surprise. Legislators in this state are in for life, lots of goodies for good party apparatchiks. And she intends to run fo president.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Video of someone’s TV with the announcement being broadcast. I was surprised they continued to show the basketball game throughout the announcement.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Someone pushed the wrong button?!

Wince said...

Jim said...
Tulsi Gabbard is actually a bit to the right of most Dems in this state.

I'd like to see a side-by-side of all her TV appearances.

I get the feeling she goes on Fox to address her position on issues that appeal to conservatives, elsewhere when her position doesn't.

fivewheels said...

Anti-Trump stunt designed to stoke fears, making hysterical dumb people believe there is more danger than before, and danger that Trump's negotiating style has caused. And you see it's working. Absolutely nothing happened, it's the fakest of fake news, but you see people panicking and blaming Trump.

The irreparable damage to the credibility of the alert system is a small price to pay for some manufactured partisan advantage, in these horrible people's eyes.

Unknown said...

Was it a mistake (as seems to be the take now) or was it fake. A hack. The "This is not a drill" would suggest it was faked.

Matt said...

There's a whole subset of videos on Youtube where young idiots use fake tv or radio alerts to fool they're parents/grandparents into believing a nuclear missile is headed their way. And they capture the reaction because its oh so funny.

Nothing quite as humorous as nuclear war, after all.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I live in Hawaii & got the alerts on my cell phones & on the television. They take CD pretty seriously here because the threats are real: earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and of course Hawaii suffered a devastating attack by the Japanese in Dec. 1941.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

The White House announced it was a “state controlled drill”? This doesn’t jive with someone pushing the “wrong button”.

Kevin said...

So NK is known to hack into US systems. NK would get to see the US response from sending a false signal, civilian and possibly military depending on how far it went.

If the US took action when NK did noting, it would demonstrate to China the the US was trigger happy and might buy some sympathy for KJU. It might also put more daylight between the US and South Korea.

And of course the immediate reaction rather than to go through all the players is to blame Trump who I'm almost 100% sure had nothing to do with it.

The way these things work, why would he?

Kevin said...

Let's be perfectly clear: the minute KJU can hit a city on the US mainland, he's not wasting a missile on Guam or Hawaii.

Lewis Wetzel said...

The most violent natural event in Hawaii's recorded history is the Mauna Loa eruption of 1868. Reports written at the time sound apocalyptic:

"At length, on the 2nd of April, a terrific earthquake took place, which shook down every stone wall and nearly every house in Kau, and did more or less damage in every part of Hawaii.

At Kapapala in eastern Kau, it caused a destructive landslip commonly known as the “mud flow.” An enormous mass of marshy clay was detached from the bluff at the head of the valley, and in a few minutes swept down for a distance of three miles, in a stream about half a mile wide and thirty feet deep in the middle, it moved so swiftly that it overtook and buried thirty-one human beings and over five hundred horses, cattle, and goats.

Immediately after this earthquake, a tremendous wave, forty or fifty feet high, rolled in upon the coast of Kau, sweeping away all of the villages from Kaalualu to Keauhou, and destroying some coconut groves. Over eighty persons perished in a few minutes, and the survivors were left destitute and suffering. At the same time the crater of Kilauea emptied itself of lava through underground fissures toward the southwest. The central part of floor of the crater fell in, forming a pit three thousand feet long and five hundred feet deep, with sloping sides.

On the 7th of April, the lava from the central crater of Mauna Loa burst out of the southwest slope of the mountain, in the land of Kahuku, at a point 5,600 feet above the sea. The lava spouted up in great fountains, several hundred feet high, and flowed to the sea, a distance of ten miles, in two hours. This eruption continued only five days. It destroyed several houses and several hundred head of cattle and overflowed 4,000 acres of good land. Three men were imprisoned for several days on a hill surrounded by lava streams, and Captain Robert Brown and his family were obliged to run for their lives."

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCWN0M_captain-browns-lava-destruction?guid=09c34095-fa3d-4f4c-ac94-b214c4e749af

Henry said...

I didn't sign up for that one.

Once the missile hit, a million missing child alerts.

JPS said...

Jim, 1:33:

"Seek shelter, like under a desk?"

I'd look for better cover if there were any. If I could know where Ground Zero was, I might try spending about 24 of those 30 minutes putting a few more miles between me and it (and the last few getting behind the best available cover). Failing all else I'd get under a desk. Why not? You're no worse off, and might be better off.

Sorry you got that alert. How awful! What a gut-punch.

Jupiter said...

Get used to it. Until we take the Norks out, a report of incoming missles on American cities is almost as credible as a report that it's going to rain tomorrow. I guess you are all young or something. I remember the Cold War. Having a mortal enemy armed with nuclear ICBMs is no fucking joke.

Fernandinande said...

I was crying and screaming before I even heard about it - because I'm prepared!

Jupiter said...

Kevin said...
"Let's be perfectly clear: the minute KJU can hit a city on the US mainland, he's not wasting a missile on Guam or Hawaii."

Oh, he has missles already that could hit any city in the US. New York, Atlanta, DC, all are well within range. What's holding him up is getting a reliable bomb on top of that missle. That's why he keeps on testing new ones.

Mark said...

We've got real problems and real dangers in the world. But let's shout profanities and bitch about Trump instead.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I wonder what kind of chaos this caused at Hilo hospital & other places on the Big Island that have rigorous CD protocols?

Mark said...

If I could know where Ground Zero was, I might try . . .

I live three miles from Ground Zero Three, and about five miles from Ground Zero One, where Trump lives. And likely we won't get any alert -- other than the flash in the sky a split second before the blast arrives.

walter said...

Duck and cover..

gspencer said...

"Seek shelter, like under a desk?"

If you live in any area with lots of colleges, like SF and the East Bay, there are oodles of safe spaces. They were meant to protect the snowflakes from truthful words uttered by conservatives, but they'll work for a bomb.

Bilwick said...

As Dave Barry would say, "People of Hawaii--the alarm has been lifted. You may now feel free to change your underwear."

Mark said...

We won't get any alert, not because NK has the missile capability (I don't think they do at this point), but because they don't need a missile, just a truck and a device brought over the southern border or from some small boat off-shore.

Sprezzatura said...

"I wonder what kind of chaos this caused at Hilo hospital & other places on the Big Island that have rigorous CD protocols?"

Probably little to no chaos.

Presumably protocols would include some effort re getting confirmation re the threat.

robother said...

This doesn't smell right. Can one guy just push a button that does this? Is it a hack? An anti-Trump protest?

Crimso said...

How would Gabbard see the alert, get hold of someone to determine whether it was real (someone willing to divulge such information to someone claiming to be a member of Congress), be convinced it was indeed a false alarm, and then send an alert out saying it was false...within 10 minutes? Perhaps it really was an exercise that wasn't supposed to be public, I'd think she might know about that ahead of time (or even participate in some way, jumping under a desk or something).

rcocean said...

I would have written it as:

"This is no drill".

No need for extra words in a missile warning.

Ken B said...

Inga thinks all buttons are federal.

AllenS said...

"Seek shelter, like under a desk?"

If you're flexible enough, you can bend all of the way over, and kiss your ass goodbye.

john said...

WAPO: "It is unclear how or why the initial alert was sent out, and how many people received it. What was clear was that the first message caused a brief panic, at least on social media, among those who read it and expected the worst."

Doesn't read like a hundred thousand Waikiki beachgoers suddenly stampeded for the Koolau's. But you can always get social media to go ballistic (he added, inappropriately).

US Pacific Command also seems to have obliquely admitted it could have been their fuckup.

Will Cate said...

"at least on social media" they said, turning up their noses.

zipity said...

Took about a nano-second for the Liberal Left/Democrats and LameStream Media© (but I repeat myself) to blame Trump for this.

Keep it up guys. Trump will have to list you as payment in kind contribution towards his re-election.

Drago said...

Inga: "The White House announced it was a “state controlled drill”? This doesn’t jive with someone pushing the “wrong button”."

Inga draws on her deep, deep knowledge of State-level controlled Civil Defense procedures and technology to render her early judgement.

Apparently, there is only 1 type of button and its the button that Trump controls.

Hawaii officials have already explained the state level error but I'll be sure to forward Inga's comment to them so they can re-evaluate.

After all, Trump must be at fault. Somehow. Someway.

Let's get Mueller on it.

Anonymous said...

Should we blame Trump for not acquiescing to Little Rocket Man's blackmail and subject us to duck and cover? Shouldn't we have listened to the Brilliant Former TOTUS Reader to "lead" the world to a nuclearless future by destroying all ours first?

Drago said...

Early "objective" reports by Fusion GPS and FBI personnel are that Trump and members of his administration surreptitiously contacted russian "go-betweens" and arranged for NK to simulate an attack on Hawaii to distract from other reports based on anonymous sourcing that Trump has been consuming larger than normal amounts of children's blood in recent days.

White House officials refuse to confirm or deny the reports concerning increased purchases of chianti and fava beans by the White House kitchen staff.

In other news, the next episode of "Madame Secretary" will explore the Secretary confronting the "fictional" President over the building of a torture chamber for small pets within the White House and reports of internecine warfare amongst loyalist and rebel factions of the Secret Service.

All in all, I would expect Chris Cuomo to have a "Pictionary Gone Wild" day on Monday.

n.n said...

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If there was a real demand, you would be instructed where to immigrate in order to make room for the liberal elite to enjoy their paradise estates.

Well, that, or the threat of extraterrestrial aliens is real and progressive.

Paul said...

I swear this country was so fucked up by Obama that one day it won't be a drill.

I hope Hawaiians peed in their pants for that 38 minutes. Their dear leader, Obama, and their heroes, the Clintons, gave 'Rocket Man' the means to nuke them.

M Jordan said...

“Inga: "The White House announced it was a “state controlled drill”? This doesn’t jive with someone pushing the “wrong button”."

I denounce myself in advance for being a word nazi but it’s “jibe,” not “jive.” This one has bugged me for a long time.

Mark said...

I seem to remember some drills in preparation for a possible campus shooting where they accidently sent out "active shooter, shelter in place, this is not a drill" alerts.

jwl said...

I wonder if there will be larger than normal amount of babies born in nine months, I reckon people in Hawaii will be shagging like rabbits tonight after the day they've had.

Paul said...

They did Mark. University of Texas At Tyler did that about nine months ago. Employee hit the wrong app button when seeing how it worked.

Josephbleau said...

Look at the upside, how many Hawaiian teen boys told their girlfriends they did not want to die a virgin!

David Begley said...

Things are so crazy nowadays - and Hawaii is such a Dem stronghold - that I have a notion this was done intentionally to drum up more Trump hatred. But that can’t be right, can it?

Jim at said...

I denounce myself in advance for being a word nazi but it’s “jibe,” not “jive.”

I always use jibe. Even when jive is appropriate.

Jive is racist.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I denounce myself in advance for being a word nazi but it’s “jibe,” not “jive.” This one has bugged me for a long time.”
—————————————
“The use of jive as a variant of jibe seems to have increased each decade since the 1940s, and may often be found in reputable and edited sources today.

This deal doesn't jive with anything Bruce Allen has done so far in free agency: re-signing veterans, going after lesser names with more reasonable price tags.
— Mike Wise, The Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2014

But Marseille's multiculturalism doesn't jive with an increasingly strong demand for secularism across France, exacerbated by the terrorist attacks of the last 18 months.
— Marco Chown Oved, Toronto Star, 25 Jul. 2016

The media culture seems to have been infected, as much of what we read and hear doesn't jive with what we otherwise know to be true. Headlines and news stories, for instance, variously tell us that we're in trouble, we're falling behind, our plan has failed, that we're the ones "shocked and awed" by Iraqi resistance.
— Kathleen Parker, The Chicago Tribune, 2 Apr. 2003

This does raise the question of why we don't enter this sense of jive, even though we have evidence of its use since the 1940s. After all, our dictionary (and every other one that you will find today) offers many definitions for words which are commonly thought of as ‘mistakes,’ such as the use of literally to mean “virtually” or “in effect.” So far, neither jive nor gibe as substitutions for jibe has this kind of record, but it seems possible that this use of jive will increase in the future, and if it does dictionaries will likely add it to the definition.”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/jive-jibe-gibe

The Godfather said...

You know those emails we all get that tell us our credit card is suspended or the IRS is freezing our bank accounts or whatever, and we must IMMEDIATELY enter our pass word or social security number or some other confidential information? You can almost always tell that the email is fake because there's a clumsy mispelling or obvious grammatical error in the message. In this case, the TV announcement that Inga posted said that you should "LAY down". I hope any real government emergency agency would know to say "LIE down."

Jeeze!

Saint Croix said...

And 962 babies were made!

The Godfather said...

Oh and saying "jive" when you mean "jibe" is another giveaway. You could imagine a North Korean making that mistake.

Yancey Ward said...

You go tell Raphael I ain't taking no jive from no Western Union messenger!

n.n said...

A progressive day "War of the Worlds".

962 babies were made

Conceived, unPlanned, and birthed.

Diaper change service will be available and provided by your mommy or daddy, and refreshments will be served at your mommy's convenience. Welcome to planet Earth.

JPS said...

Excuse me, stewardess. I speak jive.

Browndog said...

Fernandistein said...

I was crying and screaming before I even heard about it - because I'm prepared!


This comment needs to be packed up and shipped straight to the Hall of Fame!

Francisco D said...

What a lucky place to be.

Trivial issues are elucidated by cutting and pasting.

Who wouldn't learn how to think the correct way?

No Jive.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Trivial issues are elucidated by cutting and pasting.

Who wouldn't learn how to think the correct way?

No Jive.”

Coming from the “Running With Scissors” psychologist. Is your name Finch by any chance? The fictitious name of the batshit crazy psychologist depicted in the book.

Narayanan said...

The BUTTON was present from Hillary for winning Hawaii

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

The false alarm is really going to piss off John McLemore who lives in Shittown, Alabama, who begged Putin to have mercy by dropping this bomb ...

FullMoon said...

Coincidentally TCM ran a short film from fifties on duck and cover.
How do you know when it is time to get under your desk?
A very bright light, bighter than the sun, brighter than anything you have ever seen.

A good tip: If exposed to fallout, take a nice warm shower.

Leland said...

I want a better, more smaller and less powerful, deep state.

William said...

I just hope all the young men who used this as an excuse to get over are properly outed by the #metoo movement......Perhaps the plan is to sound off a number of false alerts, and then they actually drop the bomb. It's all part of an elaborate part to maximize casualties......I wonder what effect a thermonuclear war would have on Trump's reelection chances. I don't think he ever stood a chance of carrying Hawaii anyway.

Wince said...

From prior post's thread, per Althouse.

AReasonableMan said...
I am impressed that the President of the United States paying a porn star for her silence does not qualify as the biggest story of the day - both shitholegate and now ballisticmissilegate are bigger stories. Defining deviancy down.

tcrosse said...
"Defining deviancy down."
And whose fault is that, ARM ?

AReasonableMan said...
Trump's remaining supporters.


I would have said Bill Clinton for both paying off women and for paying off the North Korean regime with $3+ billion from the US Treasury.

Jupiter said...

Paul said...

"I hope Hawaiians peed in their pants for that 38 minutes. Their dear leader, Obama, and their heroes, the Clintons, gave 'Rocket Man' the means to nuke them."

No-no! It's Trump's fault. If Trump would just make nice with little Whoa Fat, he would make nice with us. Or at least, he'd nuke Honolulu last.

Danno said...

Blogger Paul said...I swear this country was so fucked up by Obama that one day it won't be a drill. I hope Hawaiians peed in their pants for that 38 minutes. Their dear leader, Obama, and their heroes, the Clintons, gave 'Rocket Man' the means to nuke them.

I wouldn't wish this on them, but the upside is one less state with two (D) Senators!

CWJ said...

Inga @ 4:32,

Jeez. Really?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga @ 4:32,

Jeez. Really?”

Yes, really. No one got blown up today, so it was ok to respond to another commenter’s issue with using the word jive, for jibe. Relax.

CWJ said...

Inga, i'm fine. As for relax, you might want to try that yourself. Your 4:32 comment suggests that you could take the defensiveness down a notch.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga, i'm fine. As for relax, you might want to try that yourself. Your 4:32 comment suggests that you could take the defensiveness down a notch.”

Obviously you're not “fine”with my 4:32 comment. I posted that hours after it was known that there was no attack. I think it odd that you thought it was worth commenting on. I may be “defensive”, but you were being offensive.

FullMoon said...

Living in California, I can accept nuked Hawaii as a reason to destroy North Korea. Better them than me.

Selfish, but honest. That's my motto.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Also, my cut and paste of the discussion about the usage of the words jive and jibe was interesting. I thought perhaps it might also be interesting to the commenter @3:55 who remarked on it.

CWJ, you sometimes come across as a passive aggressive.

glenn said...

Trump blaming commenced immediately. As predicted.

FullMoon said...

I wonder what effect a thermonuclear war would have on Trump's reelection chances. I don't think he ever stood a chance of carrying Hawaii anyway.
Hawaii bombed, Trump destroys N.Korea, thus saving N. Korea's next target, California. If timed correctly. say,October 2020, Trump flips grateful California voters.

Didn't we fake a sabotaged ship or something in order to retaliate against another country during a Democratic administration? Precedent?

Sprezzatura said...

"Trump blaming commenced immediately. As predicted."

I didn't hear what he went w/ this time.

Was it the Moooslims or the wetbacks and/or minorities who he blamed for this?

Kevin said...

If only this had happened to NYC. We’d hear about it for months.

Since it’s Hawaii I’m sure this will be non-news by Monday.

David-2 said...

The person who should really lose their job over this is the program manager for the software on the emergency broadcast system console - that is, the person responsible for the functional specification.

There's no way "pushing the wrong button" "at a shift change" - or any other accidental reason - should have triggered a message to be broadcast to all phones.

Why does it not take a confirmation - followed by a second "r u sure?" confirmation?

Total failure of imagination on the part of the PM - and also everyone who signed off on the spec (which would include someone from the agency that commissioned the software).

Unknown said...

"I am trying to get my mind around the idea that my fellow Americans, in Hawaii today, lived through 20 or 40 minutes of believing that they were about to be nuked."

If Keanu and Patrick Swayze heard that message they would immediately rush out to surf the biggest wave they could find, dude.

Bodhi: Look at it! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, man! Let me go out there and let me get one wave, just one wave before you take me in. I mean, come on man, where I am I gonna go? Cliffs on both sides! I'm not gonna paddle my way to New Zealand! Come on, compadre. Come on!

--jj

fivewheels said...

Re: jive vs. jibe

The leftist approach to grammar is pretty much the same as it is for immigration law or any other rule of society: If enough people do it wrong, that just makes it right. There are no standards, we must never be told we have done wrong.

cbuds said...

Where are the contemporaneous tweets and Facebook posts?

Drago said...

james james: "If Keanu and Patrick Swayze heard that message they would immediately rush out to surf the biggest wave they could find, dude."

Yeah, at Bells Beach in Australia....thereby saving themselves and living their dreams!

Fred Drinkwater said...

David-2,
As a former tech program manager, I can vouch for the fact that the PM gets blamed for everything, regardless of who actually committed the mistake.
It comes with the job. You gotta know that going in.

Drago said...

adSs: "Was it the Moooslims or the wetbacks and/or minorities who he blamed for this?"

None of the above. He did say they were Deplorable, knowing that term has been pre-approved for use by the dems.

Until tomorrow when the dems will forget it had been pre-approved.

That happens a lot with the lefties, what with their penchant for historical amnesia married to historical ignorance married with historical revisionism.

Hey, who said the lefties were against plural marriage?!

Drago said...

Careful james james, Bode will take you to the edge....

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Terror in Paradise: I got the Hawaii Missle message and prepared to die.

I suspect we’re going to be reading a lot of these accounts in the next few days.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Inga...Allie Oop said...

Missile, that is.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"I don't think he ever stood a chance of carrying Hawaii anyway."
In Hawaii, the numbers for Cinton V Trump in 2016 were nearly identical to the numbers Obama V Romney in 2012, about 2:1.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Inga said...
Terror in Paradise: I got the Hawaii Missle message and prepared to die.

I suspect we’re going to be reading a lot of these accounts in the next few days.

1/13/18, 7:16 PM

Good lord. I live in Hawaii. I got the cell phone alert, checked news outlets, nothing about it, so I figured it was a hoax or a mistake & finished my breakfast.

madAsHell said...

This was a political stunt. Just like the emotionally immature FBI agents seeking an insurance policy.

buwaya said...

The Filipino Republicans in Hawaii were swamped by mainlander and Chinese-Japanese Democrats.

steve uhr said...

I was in Hawaii today, Las Vegas the day before the attack, and was scheduled to fly to NYC on 9-11. I guess I'm pretty lucky.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Paying a Pornstar Hush Money Would Have Ended Any Other Presidency

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Ex-Obama defense official on Hawaii false alarm: 'Thank God the President was playing golf'

wildswan said...

There was a reason to try and prevent nuclear proliferation. There was a reason for trying to keep the bomb from N Korea and Iran. But the last administration didn't know what that reason was. And let it all happen. So we get this.

M Jordan said...

@Inga

You are correct in stating that a word’s meaning evolves in time, even due to mistaken usage. And maybe “jive” has reached that point.

But another reality about language is, if you know a correct form and someone doesn’t used that form, well, it bugs you. It’s a pride thing and that’s why I denounced myself. But it’s still there, isn’t it, that pride?

tim in vermont said...

You would think that having five witnesses under oath that Bill Clinton had commited forcible rape would have ended his presidency, but it didn’t.

You would think that destroying ones records as Secretayr of State while taking 145 million dollars from Putin would have ended a. candidacy.

But. sure, whatever you say ARM!

Drago said...

ARM: "Ex-Obama defense official on Hawaii false alarm: 'Thank God the President was playing golf'

Was that one of the obama officials that helped Iran fund terrorists and accelerate nuclear weapon development?

Or was it one of the obama officials who protected the Hezbollah/Mexican Drug Cartel smuggling operation bringing drugs into our country?

Or was it one of the ones who handed 20% of our uranium to Putin?

Or was it one of the ones who gave weapons to the Mexican Drug Cartels who then used some of those weapons to kill Americans?

Of course, like the DOJ/FBI crew working with the Hillary campaign, it's possible that it was the same 5 to 10 people who do everything.

Drago said...

ARM links to an always highly regarded Reddit thread to back up his point.

Unexpectedly!

LOL

robother said...

Just think we got through the entire 40-year Cold War with the USSR, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, without a single screw-up like this (i.e.,a State-wde false alarm). But pretty much that whole period, States, at least, were in the hands of competent men, who took their job seriously and hired people for important jobs that were the same. With Identity politics, affirmative action, not so much. Wonder how many moths, if ever, it will take to hear the results of the investigation into What Really Happened.

Drago said...

What's the matter ARM, couldn't you find a drunk down at the corner to provide a more authoritative source for your comments?

LOL

tim in vermont said...

I am sort of shocked that Rocket Man didn’t nuke Hawaii over the shithole comment. You know Trump is thinking that North Korea is a shithole, the racist bastard!

narciso said...

That story is as true as the nuclear alert, seeing as we reduced out missile defense Compliment during the last administration.

narciso said...

A speechwriter for Kerry and ash carter some expert,

tim in vermont said...

“Pushed wrong button” - Drudge

It’s not really funny, it would be terrifying.

tim in vermont said...
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glenn said...

Now we need to find out if the Internet rumor about an MSNBC crew being in the Hawaii emergency headquarters is true. This whole “wrong button” story sounds like bs to me.

Henry said...

I do not believe in current events.

Henry said...

Except for sports and weather.

Henry said...

I get the news I need on the weather report.

tim in vermont said...

If it was MSNBC, I am sure they were there to do another scare story about Trump starting an exchange with Rocket Man. It’s all Daisy Ads all the time right now with Democrats.

wwww said...

"Just think we got through the entire 40-year Cold War with the USSR, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, without a single screw-up like this (i.e.,a State-wde false alarm)."

nah much worse screw-ups happened, you didn't hear about them. There was no chain of command screw up. It was a state communication screw up.

"A royal screw up was the night someone at NORAD accidentally put a training tape in the computer and the White House was called and told that thousands of Soviet missiles were incoming. This was a screw up, but there've been worse." twitter Tom Nichols, tonight.

Now, That was a screw up.

boricuafudd said...

"Ex-Obama defense official on Hawaii false alarm: 'Thank God the President was playing golf'

You do realize that if a missile had been launched, DJT would know it before the State of Hawaii? Whether or not he was on the golf course would be immaterial. While the snarky comment sounds smart it demonstrates deep ignorance and partisanship.

We already had a President who decided to go to bed, while Americans were under siege and attacked so that he could attend a fundraiser in Las Vegas.

Henry said...

Too much fluoride in the water in Florida.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Reddit? Seriously, ARM? Maybe I will respond with a link to a Freeper thread.

wwww said...
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wwww said...
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PB said...

Blue state. 'nuf said.

FullMoon said...
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FullMoon said...

Think Hawiians were scared?
How about North Korea? Expecting Crazy Trump to retaliate any second. Bet the phones were buzzing.

Lewis Wetzel said...

None of the CD sirens went off. It was an obvious mistake.
Perhaps the canned message will now have to be modified: "This is not a drill or a mistake."

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Putin says North Korea's Kim Jong Un has 'won this round' with Trump

Drago said...

So lets sum it up: ARM goes "all in" on random Reddit threads and advancing Putin talking points.

No real surprises.

Fritz said...

I am trying to get my mind around the idea that my fellow Americans, in Hawaii today, lived through 20 or 40 minutes of believing that they were about to be nuked.

Oh come on, Ann. We grew up in the 50's and 60's thinking we could be nuked at any time. It almost happened in 1962 and 1963.

Henry said...

Nuclear holocaust doesn't match bullshit.

This is just an anecdotal New England Facebook survey.

robother said...

Hawaii Sen. Gabbard sure teed up her comments about Trump being on the golf course when the false alarm happened awfully quickly. And you would think there are a number of warnings about cyclones and tsunamis that would be more likely to be on deck for automatic broadcast in Hawaii on the push of a button than a nuclear attack.

This stinks to high heavens. But Hawaiians get the government they deserve.

Achilles said...

Blogger Drago said...
So lets sum it up: ARM goes "all in" on random Reddit threads and advancing Putin talking points.

No real surprises


The Leftists are friends with the Russians again.

History started over this morning.

narciso said...

Kim wanted direct talks with the U.S. which the considers the greater enemy somewhat like Japan colonised of the South. Dont see how this is a breakthrough.

walter said...

What? Someone connected to limited access Obama had the gall to lob a golf-time critique?

walter said...

Remember those super telephoto shots a la "we think this proves he's alive"

Roost on the Moon said...
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Yancey Ward said...

Because I am deeply cynical, I would start looking around to see anything of great value was stolen during that 38 minutes of shit-spewing terror.

chickelit said...

AReasonableMan said...Paying a Pornstar Hush Money Would Have Ended Any Other Presidency

But that's small potatoes compared to Michael "fishlips" Wollf's insistence about golden showers with Moscow hookers. Can't you even prioritize peccadilloes?

J said...

Doubt I'm the first to think of this.Either a NORK pen agent or a fellow travelling Hawaiian IT person initiated the "false alarm" in order to put more pressure on Trump.Wouldn't put it past either of them.

AllenS said...

This was simply Hawaiian government incompetence. From a people who consistently vote Democrats into office.

stevew said...

A report I just read says that an employee pressed the wrong button. Is it right next to the correct button?

Something seems off.

-sw

AllenS said...

The correct button goes to Jimmy Johns.

Bob Boyd said...

"Is it right next to the correct button?"

https://us.123rf.com/450wm/pk74/pk741409/pk74140900067/31864818-glossy-push-and-do-not-push-buttons-sunken-in-pale-background-surface.jpg

tim in vermont said...

Well, if Putin says it, then it’s gospel! Why the hell didn’t we just ask him in the first place? It’s not like Putin has any interests that diverge from our own!

Gahrie said...

I am trying to get my mind around the idea that my fellow Americans, in Hawaii today, lived through 20 or 40 minutes of believing that they were about to be nuked.

I just noticed this. I grew up and Air Force brat, and spent much of my early life on American Air Force bases in England during the Cold War. I even graduated from a high school on one of them. Air raid drills and the like were a regular part of my life. Seeing the airmen and officers run around in protective gear was no big deal. The base I lived on in high school had A-10s, the tank busters. The Soviets feared that plane (rightly it turns out) and we all lived with the knowledge that there were very probably several nuclear warheads aimed at us.

The original Red Dawn came out the year after I graduated high school, and after talking with some of my friends, pretty much all of us had had thoughts about what we would do in such a situation while growing up.

I also remember laughing about the hysteria about nuclear war that broke out in popular culture during the Reagan years while i was in college.

rehajm said...

This is why the lefties issued the false alarm. Trump had a good week and the tide needed to turn. I would've thought they'd have waited a day to do all the scare mongering, though...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

rehajm said...
Trump had a good week


rehajm said...

This is where ARM would like to point out the economic devastation Trump has caused.

stevew said...

How does some flunky employee pushing the wrong button harm Trump?

-sw

Walter S. said...

Is there any medium of communication with less credibility than a cell phone popup window?

AMAZON GIFT CARD HEADING FOR HAWAII. PROVIDE PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A SCAM.

MadisonMan said...

I guess I would've assumed it was going to hit a different spot than I was at. Hawaii is a long chain of islands.

The woman's reaction in the Post was a bit over-the-top in my opinion. (I probably wouldn't have looked at my cell phone during the 38 minutes at all. There is a risk in being connected all the time)

Crimso said...

"Now we need to find out if the Internet rumor about an MSNBC crew being in the Hawaii emergency headquarters is true."

Not an internet rumor.

I was flipping through the channels to get as much info as possible, and was on MSNBC when the guy (can't remember who it was, don't know their on-air "talent") reporting on this from Hawaii explicitly stated he had been in the room where the alert is issued the day before this happened. So it isn't a rumor, unless that reporter was lying. He said there is a phone in that room over which a higher authority would order the issuance of such an alert, and that his sources confirmed no such call was made.

BJM said...

AReasonableMan said...Paying a Pornstar Hush Money Would Have Ended Any Other Presidency

Really? Now you're shocked? How quaint.

It's laughable that the left has suddenly become pearl clutching sexual Puritans after 50 years of flying the freak flag and declaring that societal norms are for the squares, Bible thumpers and rubes. It's as if they didn't really believe their Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll, If It Feels Good Do It and Free Love mantras.

Perhaps you've missed the Sugar Baby University phenom? There will be many future business leaders. lawyers, journalists and politicians with "private arrangements" in their past.

These are the values the Sixties iconoclasts espoused as they tossed societal mores onto the bonfire. Enjoy.

BJM said...

Mark said: We won't get any alert, not because NK has the missile capability (I don't think they do at this point), but because they don't need a missile, just a truck and a device brought over the southern border or from some small boat off-shore.

This.

Personally I would rather be in a target zone, where death will be instantaneous, those who shelter and survive will linger and die horribly.

Back in the day when Dianne Feinstein was mayor of SF she was being hammered by the Feds to produce a nuke evac plan, conduct drills and spend a great deal of scarce tax money on shelters and supplies. She held a press conference wherein she had a bank of large tactical maps of CA behind her. She pointed out that because of Intel, The Blue Cube, the nuclear sub yard, naval dry dock and carrier group anchorage, to name a few obvious high value targets, the Bay Area could expect a strike of as many as 186 tactical warheads. "So Gentlemen," she asked, "exactly whom would we be evacuating?"

Mike. drop.

I've always been disappointed that Feinstein became a captive of DC and party politics, but she was a ballsy mayor who held the community together during a period of time that the city could have been burned to the ground and still came damned near after the White verdict.

Alex said...

At least the emergency alert looks so purdy on that iPhone, the last thing you'll ever see.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Hawaii is just a shithole out in the Pacific.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Hawaii is just a shithole out in the Pacific Ocean.

Mike near Seattle said...

As a 10-year-old living within range of the Russian missiles in Cuba in 1962, I spent two weeks of my life believing that I was about to be nuked.