Note, since when have we had an emergency that required this type of messaging from the so called president?

There really hasn't been a true emergency since JFK and the cuba missile crisis, and other emergencies? It's going to be too late anyways, so why a so called pres. text? To tell us that we're going to die in the next 5 minutes? What exactly is being accomplished here seriously?

And they do sweet fuck-all about it.

Can you imagine if he had his own PERSONAL Twitter that no one could delete or ignore or respond back with well-deserved public derision? He would be like a kid in a candy store. An evil, vengeful, demented kid.

"FEMA is also tasked with ensuring that the President can alert the public under all conditions in cases of national emergencies, including natural disasters and terrorist threats."

Pretty sure possible impeachment (if not worse) along with Democrats usurping "his" Congress count as a terrorist threat where he's concerned.

only help the Democrats.

This is a no-money bet of course, I expect everyone at DU will agree, which leaves the other choice useless.

In his quest for dictatorship I think he thinks this is a good tool for him to begin his campaign to the entire country. And I would like to know which enemy they are going to invent that would require a national alert. Unless it is a nuclear bomb that is going to annihilate the entire planet, at which time the alert is useless anyway, I would like to hear a good reason why this expense is needed, besides the dotard trying to send his childish messages.

Of course, I actually have bothered to learn about how the system works unlike the sky-is-falling crowd.

There has to be a way to hack out the EAS notification. The WEA can be turned off, and if on the same carrier, then something can be done (hopefully). At least now there’s more time to work out a solution.

And if they're looking for undue interference and influence in our elections, here it comes - a Mind Control tweet from Trump!

"This is a TEST of the Emergency Alert Text System! I am in an EMERGENCY! To prevent your phone from being locked, VOTE FOR ME!!"

That's not actually how it works.

Your cell carrier would have to be one that even participates and your phone would need to have the technology in it to even receive the message. The carrier would receive the message from some originator (NWS, local Emergency Management, obviously the "President" ) and would blast it out to the devices on their networks. In many areas, you can also sign up to receive these alerts via email (like the "Ready.gov" municipal participants). The message would also go to broadcast sources like radio stations and television.



WEA
IPAWS

The issue that I would agree with however, is the current occupant of the WH and what the message content would be but since it appears that in order for originators to use the system, they would have to login to a special application to create and then send the message, this is too much for the 3-year old to handle and obviously someone else would do it (he can't really do it from his own phone).

Folks might recall the incident in Hawai'i and their "test" blast message sent via this system and the panic it caused. Adjustments to that program have now been made due to the issues that happened with this event.

This definitely makes it sound less scary!

they can't just link his twitter feed into the Emergency Alert System's actual program. Anything that is highly "technical" and requires multiple steps and menus to actually execute is the only failsafe we have against more frivolous blabbering unless you have a Stephen Miller (or Miller-type or directed staffer) login to that application and start misusing the system to spew propaganda via an Alert blast.

I know growing up with the once-ubiquitous "Emergency Broadcast System", with its monthly tests on radio and TV, I don't think I ever recall an actual interruption for an emergency with "further information" (including a weather one). It wasn't until they changed to the "Emergency Alert System" (which happened in the late '90s) that I finally saw/heard a real weather alert one (vs the monthly tests) here - maybe about 10 - 15 years ago, where for the first time I experienced a red screen and/or red ticker bar at the bottom of the TV screen with a warning and recorded audio overlay that blanked out the TV broadcast's audio. It's probably because my local NWS office rarely used alerts (outside of what was broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio), until recently. Now I see them more and more for severe weather - notably severe thunderstorms and especially for any tornado warnings (although they have to make the decision whether to use the EAS to alert to the storm... they don't always do that).

I think some of the increase in using the system was prompted because this was going on for awhile -

It's annoying since it blocks the audio of whatever happens to be on. I guess they figure at this hour not too many are watching.

And you're right, if Trump couldn't figure out how to use a speaker phone, he couldn't be trusted to successfully administer any kind of important alert, even if it was only a test. But I also worry that he's so addicted to demanding attention that he'd be sorely tempted to abuse a system that he knew could reach everyone - not just FOX viewers or "red states."

That they'd also be tempted to take advantage, under the guise of presidential authority. Although it wouldn't be all that hard to tell the difference - like we can when Trump's Tweets are spelled correctly - and without a lot of "dots."

when people ignore emergency messages after tRump sends a few "fake news" emergency messages.

I'm never more than a few miles from home and never talk to anywhere but home anyway.

I'll walk into the carrier's local office, cancel, and noisily destroy the phone in their customers' view.

I don't depend on my phone to live. It's for calling out, not in. Texting is a convenience, but not a necessity. I do check it every few days.

No collusion! No collusion! No collusion! No collusion! No collusion!

were so incredibly embarrassed by the universally negative rejection, they had no idea how to tell him.