I feel terrible for the person to hit the Missile Warning button in Hawaii.

[RandySF]

Sounds like it was a pre-programmed message in the state alert system. Maybe it should not have been so easy.

[thbobby]

1. Not a funny result but

I have come home from work and been asked: "How was your day today". Can only imagine this person's answer.

But come on, who has not fucked up? There has to be more to this story. One person able to push one button that causes something like this? Just doesn't make sense to me.

[Journeyman]

2. I wonder if the alert was made on purpose, by someone intent on graphically illustrating. . .

the dangers we face in a nuclear world lead by a hair-trigger ignoramus. Not saying, just asking, and inquiring from the depths of a large dark ignorance illuminated entirely by my paranoia and the hope that someone might do something to avert our course.

Look at what this exposed: Trump's total unawareness of the system he supposedly commands, and his complete disassociation from it -- he played golf instead of seeking additional information. And the White House was revealed to be completely clueless of what would be required in a true emergency.

Thoughtful people across the nation now see the peril we are in, and recognize that such a disaster as this was only possible in the face of Trump's mindless bluster and bellicose tweets made at someone who conceivably is just as incompetent as Dim Dotard.

Leastways, that's how I see it may have gone down.

[BamaRefugee]

3. If this happened because their system was hacked, would they admit it?

I really don’t think so. I think the top guys would’ve gone out on TV and claimed that they were responsible for the mistake, just like they did, because if they actually admitted North Korea or someone else had gotten into their system, it would create even more massive panic and absolute disbelief the next time it happened.

[Journeyman]

4. I don't think the system was hacked. I wonder if it was triggered on purpose . . .

by the Hawaiian authorities.

[TexasTowelie]

5. I actually could believe that the system was hacked.

The NWS tornado warning system in Dallas was hacked so that the alarms were sounded throughout the county late at night so that hardly anybody could get to sleep. I believe it was in 2017, but it may have been in 2016.

[padah513]

6. I feel bad for all the people there.

With the way Trump has been whipping North Korea into a frenzy since he got in office, I cannot imagine what was going through their minds when all of this was going on, but hopefully those in charge will learn something from this experience. They need to do a complete overview of procedures at a minimum, and overhaul them if necessary. I'm of the mind that one person shouldn't be able to trigger an alert of this magnitude so easily, but what if a situation arises where there's only one person available?

[steve2470]

7. I do too, can you imagine thinking you're going to die for 38 minutes?

Calling your family and loved ones and friends? It must have been horrible.

[Happyhippychick]

8. You're more charitable than I am. I am furious with him.

He caused enormous trauma to many, and probably several heart attacks. I think he's incompetent and dangerous.

[Vinca]

9. If there are 2 buttons, 1 a warning and 1 the real thing, there should be a safeguard

over the button for the real thing. A cap, a cage, a lousy piece of duct tape . . . something. There's one person in the fiasco who stands out for me, though: the boss. He stood up, said it was all on him and took full responsibility. You don't see that much these days.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

10. I'm afraid I must disagree . . .

The "boss's" statement was meaningless. If it was "all on him" and he was taking "full responsibility," then he would have resigned. Talk is cheap. That's pretty much a universal truth that people today seem to disregard altogether.