it would be the biggest damn thing today!

Then, you wake up tomorrow and wait for the next thing to come - this is our New Normal.

Twitler for bringing us back to this. They should be talking about this. It is terrifying.

What if Don got this and retaliated?

Link to tweet

Reminds me of when there would be negative press for Dubya’s administration and all of a sudden there’d be a new “terror alert”

especially not living a teensy geographical distance from one of the first targets that would be hit by nuclear arsenal.

And you likely didn't live through this:

...or lined up in the school hallway.

I'm not dismissing this, but how can networks go on for hours and hours about it? That's what is ridiculous to me.

Certainly a false alarm about something that is a very real threat deserves as much attention as the racist in the oval office confirming that he's a racist.

....going around and around in circles. No point, and nothing substantive is being discussed.

But that's pretty much the nature of all news coverage recently.

Not to mention that anything substantive would take time to develop - it's a Saturday, staff is short since not much is expected to happen over the weekend. It was out of the blue - it isn't like someone planned to send out a false alert. There's going to be a fair amount of space filling until something develops, substantive information is available for either what happened - or for background, or (if there really is nothing to report) the justifiably high emotions have returned to a normal level.

I'm just not getting how anyone who lived through the 71 EBS mistake is impatient with working through the aftermath of a false alarm over an attack that is more likely than at any time in our lives (sent to the people who will likely be the first target).

Your headline was the first I was aware of this (I've been teaching since 10:30 this morning - so I'm catching up on what is going in in the world). Within 2 seconds all those emotions came flooding back, and it all it took one quick search to confirm the details (and the emotional impact) of episode in 1971.

My Kindle has one too. If I ever get bored with a book - rare, because every page of a book has different words, it never goes round and round - I just tap the power switch and the screen goes blank!

That EBS screw-up happened 2 1/2 years before I was born, but I have listened to this clip several times on YouTube. I find listening to it an eerie experience. As I understand it, only WOWO in Fort Wayne and a couple of other stations actually went into emergency mode. What happened in Hawaii today seems much more terrifying to me.

so quite a few more than "a couple." (There are very few tapes left around - perhaps only a couple of those.)

I was in high school - and remember it well.

Today is more terrifying, though, for a number of reasons.

*It is much more likely that one of the two itchy trigger fingers will start a nuclear war (even Nixon had some contact with reality and was much more of an international citizen that Trump)
*Hawaii is the most likely first target in the US (and was - theoretically - specifically targeted for attack this morning.
*The emergency warning system has been in place in Hawaii less than a year - remember - we'd been living with it for nearly a decade, and with duck and cover for much longer. You can only life in such a heightened state of apprehension for so long before your adrenaline says, Hey, dude, call me when you really need me.

I guess because it occurred at 9:30 EST on a Saturday???

I was probably asleep.
I don't remember discussing it in school the next week.

My husband says he vaguely remembers something.

I'm sure we didn't discuss it at all in school

I lived near a SAC base, and my parents had a root cellar with a few provisions set up, because we were so close to a first target.

I'd also been politically active since the 1st McGovern campaign (7th grade), and had already engaged in civil disobedience in connection with the anti-war efforts, and had worn a black armband to school the day after the Tinker decision (so that wasn't civil disobedience by that point - but if I hadn't come in with specific knowledge of the decision I would have been forced to take it off).

So it was in my nature to be aware of things like this.

You were engaged!!!

We were living in eastern Wisconsin, so we weren't near anything military.

My dad had retired from the AF in 69, yet I had never heard of this incident.

(Who became a third generation activist when my grandfather was made to feel so uncomfortable in his own church after my father became a conscientious objector that he left the dark side and became an activist in his own right. That wasn't an immediate change - first, he invited my father never to come home again.)

emergency mode. I was 15 & don't remember it at all.

It was a Saturday morning

I was probably asleep.

I don't remember this at all.

Out on vacation with Ms CincyDem. About 8am local time down on the beach, we heard what sounded like a fire alarm buzzer. Everyone looking around and then some families started hustling their kids up away from the beach. Pretty soon it was a full scale migration.

My first thought was tsunami and I checked USGS. Some guy runs past and says "verified middle launch at Hawaii". I look around and the staff is now moving folks inside to the ballroom.

Lots of concern, rumor, wtf going on stuff. Hotel is doing a great job communicating that they don't know anything beyond the initial report. Not being sarcastic, they did a great job hearding folks (some of whom were very upset) into the ballroom. Kudos to them.

Tulsi Gabbards tweet started making the rounds and the room visibly relaxed. Doors opened about 5 minutes later.

I made a comment to one of the staff afterwards about them being on it. He said, in effect, we have to take this shit really serious cuz we were the front line before and probably will be again.

Honestly, I was nervous for that 10-15 minutes of unknown and I couldn't help but think how different the world would be with HRC.

Now...back to the beach.

I’m always really interested to hear about how large-scale events like this feel for the individuals involved. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us, when your nerves must still be a bit jangled.

Now go enjoy the rest of your vacation!!!!

I'm very happy to hear that you are all ok, but it's a shame that you should have even had to live through that fear. Unfortunately, that is where we are right now in this world.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your vacation! Maui is beautiful!

Our friends in Hawaii had thirty terrifying minutes - gathering family, dashing for supplies, seeking shelter, waiting for an explosion - before the false alarm notice was sent. This is so fucked up.

I don't understand how someone who lived through the similar false alarm in the 70s (as the OP did) can think it doesn't deserve a couple of hours of coverage.

Perhaps my childhood living on a SAC base during the Cuban Missile Crisis influences my reaction but the fact we’re in the position of having a blundering fool in office means this is a much more believable alarm than it would be otherwise. You might check out the BBC reporting. The world is afraid.

That’s worth a few hours’ noting, I’d say.

hell, I live in Florida and it shook me up a tad. Not because I was afraid for my safety but because I have EMPATHY for the poor terrified Hawaiians.

but close enough that it wouldn't have made any difference - and I very clearly remember my emotional response to the similar 1971 Emergency Broadcast System mistake.

Given the near-daily taunts Trump is making against someone who has nuclear capabilities - and that the warning was sent to the most likely first target - my jaw is still on the floor at this response. I was sure it had to have been posted by someone who hadn't been through similar experiences.

I was wrong.

It wasn’t. I don’t know details about that but it was on msnbc and I assume it’ll be explained. Right?

I'm not seeing anything from the white house - but I'm limited to internet coverage.

Given the current situation, if that alert had happened in Seattle I would be plenty shaken and you can bet it would be discussed all day.

Twenty to forty minutes from the alert to the notice that it was a false alarm is a substantial amount of time when you are frightened of what is to come. I bet it moved like earthquake time for people - acutely aware of each passing second.

They didn't know what to do so they filled their bathtub up with water in case there was a shortage.

Pretty scary. You wonder what happened.

just turn off the TV.

and the incessant drills. Same thing by the way: under the desks or during the Crisis lined up in the hallway. We lived in A-bomb Alley, midway between DC and NYC. In retrospect, we would have been crispy critters regardless of what drill we performed.

As for Hawaii? I'd read that the population had been doing drills for several weeks, so I'm sure a 'this is not a drill' alert was scary. Although I heard from one newscaster on the ground that a lot of people ignored it.

As for the wall-to-wall coverage? That's pretty much the news world we live in, the same report circulated a thousand times. It is irritating.

As for the 'human error' aspect of the alert. I really hope that's the case, rather than some hack into the system. I've read Fancy Bear is active again, and the troll factory in Moscow has been given new digs--3x the floor space of the original HQ. North Korea has an active, growing unit focused on cyber attacks. Our adversaries are attempting 24/7 to penetrate our cyber-infrastructure. What better way to create panic and gin up fear than to initiate a false alert of incoming missiles?

We'll no doubt be remembered as the Age of Living Dangerously.

What happened?

Thanks George

Nothing is newsworthy on DU because someone will show up and complain about how it isn't a story. Every time, no matter what.

It really shouldnt have happened...how do you hit the button by mistake? Shouldnt there be a two step thingy?

Some people are fragile from this admin, some are medically fragile or elderly.. that kind of stress could cause a heart attack or stroke. I mean, bejeezus, doesnt it take like 30 min for a missile to get to hawaii from NK?

Im glad I didnt see this till after the fact.

to include trumps action/inaction with a missile-strike warning out there for 38 minutes.

Sorry it took time from your busy Saturday listening pleasure.

From President, who was apparently too busy playing golf again and could not take one minute away from that to address situation. Yet he is quick to respond and tweet whenever Fox News covers any policy of his, even going so far as to disagree with his own administration's stances on policy up for vote when a Fox report takes that position.

I'd say that deserves coverage.

Not only does he not deserve to be president, he doesn't deserve to live.