Some soon to be unemployed Hawaii Emergency Services employee hits the wrong button during a shift change, and accidentally sends out an email alert saying that there was an inbound missile heading towards Hawaii and to take cover. It ended with the words "This is not a drill", which are the same words used at the end of the telegram alerting the President about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Of course, it was a false alarm, but it scared the bejesus out of several hundred thousand Hawaiins. Turns out, these messages are all preloaded into the system in case they're needed, so no one has to actually create a message during an actual crisis - just punch a button and go. Someone somehow hit the wrong button.
With the tensions we are currently having with North Korea, this error had the very real potential to start a nuclear war. Thankfully, PACOM and NORAD determined within minutes that there was no threat and immediately sent out messages to that effect on social media. It took the Hawaiin government over 30 minutes to send out an email retracting the alert, which is another thing that should be looked into.
In his first tweet since the incident happened earlier today, President Trump attacked "fake news", Michael Wolff's book, and once again brought up the 2016 election. Not a word to the Hawaiin citizens yet that even acknowledged the frightening false alarm or reassuring them that steps were being taken to make sure it didn't happen again. That's something a normal President would do, especially if an entire state is involved. Not Trump - with him, it's all about me, me, me.
Or maybe it's because Obama was born there, and the state went for Clinton, so he just doesn't care. |
