Trump Will Get Power To Send Unblockable Mass Text Messages To All Americans (nymag.com)

President-elect Donald Trump will have access to a system which can send unblockable texts to every phone in the United States once he becomes the president. From a report on NYMag: These 90-character messages, known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (or WEAs), are part of a program put in place after Congress passed the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act, in 2006. WEAs allow for targeted messages to be sent to every cell phone getting a signal from certain geographically relevant cell towers (or, in a national emergency, all of them). While it'd be a true nightmare to get screeching alerts from your phone that "Loser Senate Democrats still won't confirm great man Peter Thiel to Supreme Court. Sad!", there are some checks and balances on this. While President-elect Trump hasn't shown much impulse control when it comes to his favorite mass-messaging service, Twitter, the process for issuing a WEA isn't as simple as typing out a 90-character alert from a presidential smartphone and hitting "Send." All WEAs must be issued through FEMA's Integrated Public Alert Warning System, meaning that an emergency alert from the president still has at least one layer to pass through before being issued. While FEMA is under control of the executive branch (the head of FEMA is selected by the president, and reports to the Department of Homeland Security), the agency would have a vested interest in not seeing their alert system bent toward, uh, non-emergency ends.

Comments

Don't give him ideas

[NotInHere]

Journalists, be careful what you publish. Don't give donald ideas!

Re:Don't give him ideas

[ShanghaiBill]

I have been woken at 2am by idiotic Amber Alerts about incidents hundreds of miles from my home. If there was some way to block these messages, I would do so. I don't think Donald is going to be any worse than the bozos already abusing this system. The kidnapping of a blonde white girl by her non-custodial parent, is not a "national emergency".

Re:Don't give him ideas

[93 Escort Wagon]

I have been woken at 2am by idiotic Amber Alerts about incidents hundreds of miles from my home. If there was some way to block these messages, I would do so.

Blocking Amber Alerts on iOS is simple. Go to Settings -> Notifications, scroll down to the bottom of that page, unselect "AMBER Alerts" (and/or "Emergency Alerts"). I assume it's equally easy on Android.

But back to the subject at hand... I held my nose and voted for Hillary, but I'm getting really tired of these "Trump may do this" and "Trump might do that" propaganda pieces that are spewing forth across the web. I'm nervous about his presidency; but the election is over - let's see what he actually does, and then react if necessary.

I'm old enough to remember similar hysteria from back when Reagan was elected. Early on, his administration tried to do some pretty darn stupid things, like attempting to let ketchup count as a vegetable in school lunches. I remember Bill Clinton's early day missteps as well ("Sorry, we don't talk to the military"). But between the politics of Washington DC and the court of public opinion, the initial lunatic fringe crap gets self-corrected pretty darn quickly. The Republic will survive.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[TheWanderingHermit]

Some of us cannot turn off our phones at night. I had to deal with my Father dying of leukemia for 3 years or so, then an over-anxious Mother who was having panic attacks and then we found she was developing Alzheimer's. For 10 years, I had to be on call 24/7 because I never knew what would happen or if that out-of-town phone call was a friend or an EMT or someone calling on their cell phone to tell me she needed help or was in serious trouble.

It must be a wonderful privilege to live in a world where it's easy to imagine not having to be on call 24/7.

Re:Don't give him ideas

[Nunya666]

I have been woken at 2am by idiotic Amber Alerts about incidents hundreds of miles from my home. If there was some way to block these messages, I would do so.

Blocking Amber Alerts on iOS is simple. Go to Settings -> Notifications, scroll down to the bottom of that page, unselect "AMBER Alerts" (and/or "Emergency Alerts"). I assume it's equally easy on Android.

I don't get enough Amber alerts to be annoyed by them, but your post made me curious about turning them off on my Android (Galaxy S5). A quick search on DDG revealed that, on Samsung Galaxy phones, it's a setting in the Messaging app. Interestingly, there is also an option for Presidential Alerts that is checked/selected/enabled and it cannot be unchecked.

Re:Don't give him ideas

[SecurityGuy]

Well, he's not the president yet, so he doesn't have the ability to do it.

It's not news, but it's also not fake. It's basically an opinion piece, which is hardly new to /.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[Calydor]

In many cases, wait until it was too late.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[Straif]

Most of these emergency alerts (Amber Alerts/WEAs) will cause your phone to ring regardless of the sound settings; it's kind of the point.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[johanw]

There exists call blockers that have whitelists: if it recognises your parents or friends number the call will go through, otherwise the caller will get a busy tone.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in Europe we don't have any of that, being a relatively safe place where people rarely freak out. I did however notice a greyed-out section for Presidential Alerts which had Putin's name.

Re:Don't give him ideas

[mcgrew]

You can always kill the phone's sound before bed, and check messages when you get up. You kids just don't understand that answering your phone, whether talk, text, email, amber alert, or presidential alert is NOT MANDATORY. If you're driving, leave the damned thing in your pocket, whoever is attempting contact can wait until you get where you're going.

Stop being a slave to your phone!

If it looks like there may be tornadoes that night, you might want to let the presidential/amber alerts annoy you.

Previewing this, I laughed; this font makes "tornadoes" look like "tomadoes" (I've seen "tomatoes" misspelled like that before).

Re: Don't give him ideas

[TheWanderingHermit]

I can't put on a whitelist doctors that I don't yet know in case she ends up in the ER. There were also times when someone, like a substitute caregiver, would call and their area code was someplace away from us because they still have the same cell number from before they moved. I made a reference to this in my post.

Re: Don't give him ideas

[TheWanderingHermit]

I guess you missed the entire point of what I said. Parents with terminal diseases - you can't just ignore those calls and if it's an emergency or there's a new caregiver on duty you don't know, the call could be from numbers or area codes you don't recognize. You can't just silence the phone and figure you won't be getting an important call.

I alluded to that before - guess you didn't read that part of the response.

What. The. Fuck.

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck is this? I don't like Trump because I have a brain cell, but this is bullshit garbage. msmash/manish needs to go.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[Dogtanian]

What the fuck is this? I don't like Trump because I have a brain cell, but this is bullshit garbage. msmash/manish needs to go.

I don't like Trump either- mainly because he's an openly self-serving sociopath, a narcissist to almost certainly pathological degree, a shameless bully with no target too cheap or low if it dares to threaten his dangerously thin skin, and an all-round, outright piece of shit.

And I agree with you- this story (or rather, the Trump slant on it) is clickbait garbage of the type that's going to dilute and cheapen any legitimate criticism of him because people switch off after getting overwhelmed by opportunistic Trump-slanting of crap like this at the slightest excuse.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[Dogtanian]

The degree to which Trump gets obsessively defensive about the "tiny hands" taunts would actually be funny (#) if such a thin-skinned and easily (if not reliably) manipulated guy hadn't just been elected the "leader of the free world".

Before he got elected, Trump projected his own narcissistic paranoia onto America when he claimed that "the world is laughing at us".

The irony is that now he's been elected Putin *will* be laughing up his sleeves at America, at the fact the guy he wanted to win- the one who's easily manipulated into selling out his country's interests by a few flattering words playing on his ego- won the American election.

(#) And believe me, given how shamelessly the guy has used- and continues to use- his power to bully anyone who doesn't agree with him, there's no-one I'd feel less guilty about taunting.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[PRMan]

This already exists. Look on your cellphone under Settings > Alerts. It's already been there for years.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[DNS-and-BIND]

Well, the Left and the Democrats have only themselves to blame. We all know this, right? Voting for Trump was the last, desperate move of ordinary Americans whose backs were up against the wall. Hillary promised open borders, Trans-Pacific Partnership, more free trade, more H1Bs, more exporting of jobs, and everything the heartless globalist political class wanted. They were going to stick it to America and they were going to make it HURT. On November 8th Americans' vision of America was going to die, Painfully.

And why shouldn't they vote for Trump, anyway? Hillary was already a 93%, 98% favorite. At this point, what difference does it make? Go down in flames, with a protest vote. And then he won, go figure.

If you want to know how we ended up like this, please watch this video: "President Trump: How & Why...". It is a must-view for people exactly like you for how the level of political discourse got so low. It's by a leftist, so you know he's telling the truth and has been fact-checked. It's really sad what he's saying and it is all 100% true. Never forget this: Trump is all your fault. If you had just been understanding and wanted to do what was right for Americans, this would never have happened.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[guises]

going to dilute and cheapen any legitimate criticism of him because people switch off

I don't think this is accurate. I had that experience with all of the accusations surrounding Hillary, wild stuff like how she stole a bunch of furniture from the state department, or how she murdered the cat of one of her former aids, and I did as you said and just stopped paying attention. That doesn't seem to be how the majority of people handled it though. It seems as though the nonstop accusations did have a very significant impact on how people perceived her, though none of those things ever even got as far as a trial, let alone a conviction.

There's an old rule that if you repeat something often enough people will start to believe it, no matter what it is. Let me remind you that the difference between a religion, which we generally venerate, and a cult, which we generally denigrate, is only age - how long and how often beliefs have been repeated is what really matters.

Lets not worry about this yet

[AuMatar]

There's plenty Trump is actually doing that will have drastic consequences over the next few decades to be concerned about. Lets not start worrying about a power he hasn't abused yet, has made no comments that show he will abuse it, and if abused would be more an annoyance than a crisis. Priorities people.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[Joce640k]

Yep, this is just a distraction. The magician's assistant. Something people will focus on while he does the switcheroo.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[Verdatum]

That's...extremely rational. What are you doing hanging around on modern Slashdot?

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[Eristone]

He has a low (relatively speaking) id number... they are known to lurk and occassionally make a rational comment to prove that all reasonable discourse isn't dead.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[caferace]

This is a low ^^ id number. That is all.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[Talderas]

How is it that whenever there is a discussion regarding low UIDs you guys seem to crop up. Is there like a mailing list that people report to that you're all subscribed to for notifications?

Maybe I just don't pay attention to UID except when UID is mentioned.... nah, that's too plain and boring. I'm going with the conspiracy theory.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[GoblinKing]

Yes. Yes there is ... and obviously you, youngster, are not on it. ;P

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[RobKow]

That -is- a low id number...

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[JackieBrown]

Considering that Bill Clinton got impeached for not admitting publicly that he'd been cheating on his wife, that scenario should get Trump removed from office very very quickly.

That's not why he was impeached. At the very least it is a dishonest oversimplification. He was impeached for perjury.

He was accused of sexual harassment and assault. In court, he lied about his sexual history to help create a false image of being a "family value's man" with a character incapable of the acts he was accused of doing.

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[AthanasiusKircher]

How is it that whenever there is a discussion regarding low UIDs you guys seem to crop up. Is there like a mailing list that people report to that you're all subscribed to for notifications?

"Mailing list"? "Subscribed"? Ha!

No, I'm sure these guys predate all that new-fangled nonsense. The 4-digit UID guys have a 1980s-style robocall recorded message that goes out; the system that operates it runs on a beowulf cluster of Commodore 64s.

The 3-digit UID guys have a network of carrier pigeons that send out "notifications."

Re:Lets not worry about this yet

[AK Marc]

And you don't mind the the calls the president of Argentina and gets permits for his personal businesses pushed through? He hasn't even taken office, and has committed impeachable offenses.

Ha ha ha

[Camel Pilot]

First FEMA tweet

Rosie O'donnell is a yuge bitch!!!!

Re:Ha ha ha

[PopeRatzo]

I've got "Trump sends nation goatse SMS" as the center square on my bingo card.

Yes? So?

[Anonymous Coward]

And Obama had this power too. Don't remember quite how far back this goes, but pretty sure Bush was able to do it too.
And EVERY president going back to the start of the Emergency Broadcast System, since 1963, has had the ability to commandeer all airwaves as well. It was accidentally set off once, in 1971.

Meh.

Next story.

Bigger worries then Unsolicited Junk Texts

[Dorianny]

Trump will soon have the power and authority to launch a Preemptive Nuclear Strike and you are worried about the misuse of the WEA's Text Messages?!

But I'm on the do not call tweet list...

[__aaclcg7560]

Instead of reading a summary of Mr. Trump's 3AM tweets in The Wall Street Journal each morning, I'll be force to read each one as they come in real time.

Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[bradley13]

Why is this news? Obama has the power now. I trust Obama, as a professional Chicago-machine politician, even less than Trump.

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[mlw4428]

Obama doesn't tend to go onto Twitter at 3AM and start whining and getting into arguments. If you don't see how Obama acts like an adult and Trump a petulant teenager, you're beyond all hope.

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Verdatum]

God, you sound just like my jerk-DAD. I should be able to listen to my music at whatever volume I want, jeez.

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Freischutz]

Um, you're whining like a teenager yourself. Clean up your own backyard first.

Donald? Is that you?

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Rob Y.]

Well, I assume you don't trust Trump to tell the truth - since it must be obvious even to you that he lies more or less constantly. So you trust him to be 'different', I suppose - with some kind of faith that 'different' in his case will turn out to be better. All very optimistic of you.

But have you considered that, for example, there was nothing stopping Trump from developing (or adopting) a coherent plan for, say, 'repealing and replacing Obamacare' sometime in the past 6 years. To me, the fact that he hasn't done so, and campaigned (and won) on a promise of 'something better', implies that he didn't have something better to offer - or he'd have offered it. There's no need to play political chess in pursuit of a popular policy, so let's assume his eventual 'something better' won't be better for enough voters for him to have presented it to them...

Yes, Obama is a politician - and a bit of a disappointment at that. 'Chicago-machine', I guess, carries a lot of specific negative meanings to you, but I'll assume it's is essentially code for 'Democrat' or 'urban' or something. But as far as 'trust' is concerned, Obama governed pretty much like he said he would - way to the right of where people (and the Nobel committee) 'hoped' he would, based, I guess, on their projections of what the first black President would do. But he was pretty trustworthy in the sense that he didn't misrepresent his policies much. Trump, on the other hand is claiming he's going to restore middle-class factory jobs by, what? Cutting taxes, mainly. Well, if you haven't figured out that 'tax cuts for the rich pay for themselves and help the middle class' is a lie by now, you're just not paying attention - or you've chosen sides and don't care about the truth.

Well, we're all about to see your assumptions and your faith tested. And I predict a continued rise in income inequality, with some various uglinesses on the side. If that happens, what will your reaction be?

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[T.E.D.]

. 'Chicago-machine', I guess, carries a lot of specific negative meanings to you, but I'll assume it's is essentially code for 'Democrat' or 'urban' or something.

It must be. If you know anything about Chicago politics, you'd know that the only contested race Obama ever ran in Chicago he lost to a longtime local politician due largely to being portrayed as an outsider. Lost it badly. Didn't even get 30%. His Senate race after that, his main claim to fame during the primary was an endorsement from a politician from rural southern Illinois (whose father happened to be beloved bowtied former Senator Paul Simon), and the general he largely won by default.

He's no more a product of any "Chicago Machine" (whatever that is) than Mitt Romney.

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[perlface]

Sheesh. Talk about #fakenews

Obama ran unopposed for State Senator campaign in 1996 because the machine disqualified his primary opponents. The Chicago Board of Elections (e.g., the machine) ruled that 62% of the signatures that his opponents submitted with their nominating petitions were invalid.

http://stoneformayor.com/obama...

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Rob Y.]

Except that Obama is perhaps the least corrupt individual to hold the Presidency since Jimmy Carter. Sure, he's a politician, and somewhat beholden to his donors - but in the scope of things, he's run a pretty clean administration. So in that light, using "Chicago-machine" to impugn him as corrupt? Why? Because he happened to come from Chicago? That won't fly. So I'm sticking with "Democrat" or 'Urban" or (dare I say it) "Black".

And I'm not one of those Democrats who's willing to chalk Trump's success up to racism. He certainly had the support of just about every racist you can find, but that doesn't make all of his swing supporters racists any more than Obama's coming from Chicago makes him corrupt. What it does make them is less uncomfortable associating themselves with racists and a politician (and party) who courted the racist vote than they are frightened and angry in general about the state their lives and the ability of the government to do anything that might make it better. I doubt they expect Trump to make it better either - they just want him to blow a few things up. Judging by his cabinet picks, they're likely to be disappointed even on that count. Maybe he'll keep them on board with a steady diet of tweeted conspiracy theories and personal insults...

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Rakarra]

But have you considered that, for example, there was nothing stopping Trump from developing (or adopting) a coherent plan for, say, 'repealing and replacing Obamacare' sometime in the past 6 years. To me, the fact that he hasn't done so, and campaigned (and won) on a promise of 'something better', implies that he didn't have something better to offer - or he'd have offered it.

I'm not so sure about that anymore. I believe our election system rewards vague generalities and punishes specifics. People with a record to examine are now at a disadvantage compared to people who don't. If you make public a plan, you are only providing campaign fodder for the people disadvantaged by that plan. You're certainly not going to win among the people who would also have supported you with more vague promises.

Trump succeeded with basically "I'm going to do it all, and it's going to be great. It'll be a beautiful thing." He probably learned a lot of lessons from Herman Cain and his stupid "9-9-9" plan. Cain shouldn't have made that public.

Whether a politician has a good plan or not is hard to discern, these days articulating positions just lowers a politician's chances. "It's difficult and messy," is not the story people want to hear, "We're awesome and we're going to win" is much more comforting.

Re:Why is this news? Obama has the power now...

[Xest]

"Well, we're all about to see your assumptions and your faith tested. And I predict a continued rise in income inequality, with some various uglinesses on the side. If that happens, what will your reaction be?"

To double down and vote for him again in 2020, because next time it will be different!

Give it a break slashdot

[jmichaelg]

I hate pointless fear mongering articles. Best example of fake news there is right here on slashdot.

Trump isn't likely to abuse the alert system but leave it to slashdot to make an issue of it.

  Trump won. Get over it already.

Re:Give it a break slashdot

[swb]

Fear mongering is a gift to the fake news industry. Because it's speculation based on fact, it's technically not false. But it's also usually about three decimal places past the zombie apocalypse in probability.

As long as a segment of Democratic base continues to indulge in extreme paranoia, the news industry across all strata will continue pumping out stories to indulge this paranoia.

I predict next we'll hear that Mike Pence will be personally performing abortions on pregnant transgender people because the bible says it's ok.

Re:LOL

[Tablizer]

My sig proven as accurate as ever

How is this news, or even interesting?

[MullerMn]

What the fuck is this? Seriously? What. The. Fuck. Taco must be turning in his grave/money pit at what the various owners of Slashdot have done to it since he sold it on.

How about...

[The-Ixian]

As the old adage goes: "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it"

Can we stop complaining about things that may possibly is some crazy parallel universe happen?

I didn't vote for the guy but can we at least wait until he is in office and doing stuff before we jump off the deep end?

Suddenly worried

[roninmagus]

All of a sudden, the left and the media are afraid of the powers that have been given to the president...

Re:Yes? So?

[Thelasko]

Correct. This is a totally sensationalist story.

Democrats are the enemy

[Okian Warrior]

I hate pointless fear mongering articles. Best example of fake news there is right here on slashdot.

Trump isn't likely to abuse the alert system but leave it to slashdot to make an issue of it.

  Trump won. Get over it already.

I'm so weary of all this one-sided bickering and sniping over Trump that I've decided that Democrats should be considered enemy combatants.

To be more clear, I now consider Democrats to be the equivalent of the "other side" in a war - they will still oppose every and any thing your side does, they can lose a battle and still wage war, incessant and total non-compliance, they will fight to the last man, and any victory - even pyrrhic - is still a victory. Any means are justified in the pursuit of their ends.

All the things an unruly child does, but forever.

In my mind the Democrats are *permanently* a party of dishonour, disgrace, and corruption. A group that simply gets no "benefit of the doubt" or "concessions of fairness" or anything like that. They are children, now and forever. We should treat them as such.

I was thinking through the recent news (last night) that Trump got Carrier to keep 1000 jobs in the US, and how I couldn't see a way to frame that in a bad light. Lo and behold! Recent comments on Slashdot manage to paint this as a bad thing. They even pulled out the Hitler comparison for good measure.

The Democrats are defeated. Leaderless and feckless, the only thing they can do is complain.

No plan, no leadership, and rife with corruption.

It's hard to see why anyone would be a part of that crowd.

Re:Democrats are the enemy

[Mab_Mass]

To be more clear, I now consider Democrats to be the equivalent of the "other side" in a war - they will still oppose every and any thing your side does, they can lose a battle and still wage war, incessant and total non-compliance, they will fight to the last man, and any victory - even pyrrhic - is still a victory. Any means are justified in the pursuit of their ends.

So... in other words, the Democrats are now going to do what the Republicans have been doing for the past 8 years.

Re:Democrats are the enemy

[ScentCone]

And what exactly are you gonna do about that, you fuckwit?

Thank you for reinforcing his point so well.

If you come, you better come heavy.

The country did, including lots of Democrats thoroughly tired of the DNC's BS and the Dem power structure's utter contempt for the people it wants to rule. You know, in the voting booth. That's why the Democrats have lost the better part of a thousand legislative seats, governorships, both houses of congress, the executive branch, and shortly the prospect of a majority in the Supreme Court. Because they, as a party, talk and act just like you.

Re:Democrats are the enemy

[ScentCone]

Except more voters chose the Democrat.

Yeah. In practical terms... in California. This is news how, exactly? The Democrats campaigned for electoral votes, and so did their opponents. They took California for granted as they always do, because Californians - in enough numbers - are loyal servants to people like the Clintons. They were a given, and they were taken as such. That has nothing to do with the ongoing sweeping pummeling that the Democrat party has been feeling for years now, and which came home to roost especially this time around. Reflexively blue places went red. More Latinos, Muslims, and blacks voted against the Democrats this time around than last time around.

Consider California to be your measure of how "the voters" think if you want, please. PLEASE do that. Encourage more maneuvers like we just saw (Pelosi, once again in charge of the Democrat party's fortunes in the congress - fantastic! what a gift for the Republicans!), because that's going to mean even more of those up for grabs Senate seats abandoned by the Dems in just under two years. The "coming heavy" thing has already happened, and will continue to. Your assurance that the Democrats are somehow ready for that has already been proven false, in dramatic fashion.

Re:You can turn this off

[Dorianny]

Emergency alerts can already be turned off on your phone. I don't need to be getting woken up at 3AM for flash flood warnings in a different watershed or missing children in a vehicle on a major interstate hours' drive away from my out-of-the-way little hometown, so I have them off already. If that means I don't get stupid fucking Trump tweets either, great.

Providers are not required to participate in (CMAS) but if they do they are not allowed to offer the option to disable Presidential alerts. So sorry, If President Trump wants to let you know "Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure,it's not your fault", he can most certainly wake you up with a 2am CMAS

Re:Yes? So?

[rholtzjr]

Agreed, when I first read the article I asked myself "And?". Why is this even showing up on a tech forum?

Time to move on to technical discussions and move away from the politics that have been a major distraction this past year.

Re:Yes? So?

[PopeRatzo]

Why is this even showing up on a tech forum?

Because Donald Trump is technically a sociopath?

What a stupid story

[wardrich86]

1. Any person acting as president would have access to the same thing, so why is this worth a story?
2. Just because Trump has access to it doesn't mean he's going to abuse it.
3. Obviously there are fucking checks and balances in place... so again, this story is a non-story
4. Guess what - Trump also has access to 911! :O

Why the fuck are people so pissy about Trump? They fucking voted him in! If everybody is so serious about Clinton 4 prez, where were they on voting night? I assume the Clinton circlejerk ran a bit late.

Re:Yes? So?

[ScentCone]

Because Donald Trump is technically a sociopath?

Then you must be REALLY relieved that the Clintons didn't get the executive power they were hungry to regain.

Re:LOL

[ColdWetDog]

"Mostly harmless" my ass....

Got Root?

[drinkypoo]

If anyone is interested, it is apparently quite simple to block presidential alerts on a rooted android phone. I never looked it up before because why would I care... before

My phone is rooted but I'm not blocking them... yet

Re:You're cute

[Mab_Mass]

I don't recall the Republicans calling half the nation "deplorable", or rioting when Obama was elected. Or rioting when [Bill] Clinton was elected.

What about when Romney insulted 47% of the US?

What about the protests and threats of lynching for Obama's election?

You must have a bad memory.

But please... hold your breath until you're blue in the face.

I'll see your non-sequitur and raise you standing on one leg until you fall over. You're so cute when you do that.

Re:Yes? So?

[thegarbz]

Because Donald Trump is technically a sociopath?

Then you must be REALLY relieved that the Clintons didn't get the executive power they were hungry to regain.

Why does hate for a political party need to be a partisan issue?

Must be some recourse

[Locke2005]

Either give me the ability to BLOCK the messages, or give me the ability to RESPOND to the messages and tell the sender what an asshole he is!

Re:You can turn this off

[Actually, I do RTFA]

he can most certainly wake you up with a 2am CMAS

Why would I leave my phone close enough to wake me when I go to sleep?