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Hawaii Governor Didn't Correct False Missile Alert Sooner Because He Didn't Know His Twitter Password (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader shares a WashingtonPost report: Minutes after the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency mistakenly sent a missile alert at 8:07 a.m. on Jan. 13 -- terrifying residents and visitors across the state -- some officials, such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, rushed to Twitter to reassure everyone it was a mistake. But one Twitter account was deafeningly silent for 17 minutes: that of Hawaii Gov. David Ige. Though Ige was informed by the state's adjutant general that the alert was false two minutes after it was sent, he waited until 8:24 a.m. to tweet, "There is NO missile threat." On Monday, after he gave the State of the State address in which he avoided the subject of the missile alert fiasco, reporters demanded an explanation for that long silence. Ige's answer: He couldn't log in to Twitter. "I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that's one of the changes that I've made," Ige said.
Why would he rely exclusively on Twitter when there's an entire industry whose job it is to disseminate information?
Fair enough ... I would consider not knowing your Twitter password a badge of honor (not having an account even more so).
Alerting broadcast media might have been a better use of time (if he wasn't already doing that) though.
I've never been on any sort of Facebook or Twitter type system. Is social media nonsense an official news channel now? If so I would rather have that missile strike.
And these jokers enact laws for "ensuring" cyber security.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Only politicians and celebrities (CIA agents) use it anyway, so just nationalize it. That would also take care of the whole notion they get to censor people.
If the highest ranking government official can't speak to the populace (or is it subjects?) without Twitter, then the US is doomed.
It's over folks.
Because this person that does not use twitter things it is the only way to reach people.
Try calling the radio and tv stations. The Governor of Hawaii does have a staff, right? They do have phones, don't they?
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
The system is not there for people like you.
It is a "Dimocracy - government of the dim, by the dim, for the dim!"
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
... he knows HIS password!
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
We all understand that those darn post-it notes fall off the monitor after while. This must have been the issue.
Isn't his password Covfefe?
L'Idiot
If Twitter's going to be the official emergency management channel from now on, I guess I'd better recover my own Twitter password ...
Well, I for one don't care because even if I had seen the alert on twitter I can promise you I would not be going back to twitter after that. Who would? What's the point?
What are the chances that these two independent errors happened near the same times?
Very good actually.
You climb down stairs everyday whithout problem. Yet, if you hear that someone has hurt him/herself falling down stairs, you can't help but think about it the next time you end up at the top of a flight of stairs, thus greatly increasing the risk of a misstep and a fall.
The guy in Japan had heard of the incident in Hawaii, and the stress of not wanting to make the same mistake, even if completely unconscious, greatly increased the risk of actually repeating the same mistake.
It's a very well known flaw of the human psyche. Never attribute to a conspiracy what can be perfectly explained by human nature.
Try calling the radio and tv stations.
I spend a lot more time by my phone than I do watching TV/listening to radio. Twitter wouldn't have reached me unless DJT tweeted the all-clear, but since the alert reached everyone over their phones that does seem like the right vector for correcting it.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Unless he has a personal assistant with him at all times why is he supposed to respond faster than 17 minutes? Hell I've taken craps that were longer than that!
love is just extroverted narcissism
Did his god damn phone work? Does he know that he can push buttons on it and when done in the correct order he can talk to someone? Wait, he probably didn't know the phone number.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
More likely he had his head between his knees until someone told him it was a mistake.
Why didn't he just phone the Russian embassy and ask them?
Apparently the big story here is this: though he couldn't do it, he thought he should have used Twitter, instead of the state's website or the directly contacting the news media (by email or phone) or something like that. Twitter is what came to his mind. You sure that isn't weird/interesting?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
You just noticed that ? As Heinlein foretold, Welcome to the Crazy Years. . .
Then his password would be the same.
He needs to write it down on a yellow sticky note stuck to his monitor. Obs. Good enough for the operations manager Jeffrey Wong, good enough for him. https://qz.com/1181763/hawaiis...
Tulsi Gabbard is the only Democrat I would vote for, for president.
Nope, I couldn't vote for her. I think it's time to replace all members of congress. It's also time for term limits.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
So I don't have a Twitter account and have no plans to get one. Nothing against it just have no use for it. So using Twitter to communicate to me is going to be ineffective at best because the information will be at least 2nd hand by the time I get it. Twitter is a terrible substitute since why would anyone believe a message over twitter over the official warning system?
The correct answer is to send out another message on the same system that obviously has the ability to contact every cell phone in the state.
For better or worse in any emergency twitter will get the information to a wider audience and will be picked up by the media faster than anything else these days.
You've apparently forgotten that they have a system that is able to contact EVERY PHONE IN THE STATE. In what universe is Twitter more efficient than that? Furthermore Twitter is hardly trustworthy nor does everyone have a Twitter account (I do not have one) so it's worse for me than the media.
Term limits - a method for ensuring that right about the time someone is good at their job they are forced to leave it.
There is a reason why we don't have term limits in industry, and that is because we value experience. If you want to find a way to lessen the advantage of incumbency, find a way that doesn't ensure we have perpetual neophytes.
Alerts and updates are done by OES director or designated person under direction of the Governor. Governors like the President don't do the actual messaging or press the red button, they may give orders but not the person actually writing a message about incoming missile. i.e. Governors should not be the ones sending a tsunami alert.
mfwright@batnet.com
Try calling the radio and tv stations.
I spend a lot more time by my phone than I do watching TV/listening to radio. Twitter wouldn't have reached me unless DJT tweeted the all-clear, but since the alert reached everyone over their phones that does seem like the right vector for correcting it.
Personally, whenever I get a storm alert I turn on the TV, radio, or get on the internet to stream a local radio or TV station to confirm what's happening and the area that the alert covers. I certainly don't check Twitter as a huge percentage of what's there is false or misleading. Plus, a twitter account is more likely to be hacked than a live news feed.
BTW: practically every vehicle has a radio in it and most local stations offer streaming. The point is that you are a lot closer to a radio for much of the time than you think.
Term limits - a method for ensuring that right about the time someone is good at their job they are forced to leave it.
I can count the number of people who are "good at their job" in congress on the fingers of one hand. Are you aware that congress has about a 9% approval rating? If most of these people were something other than worthless, their approval rating might be higher. I'd rather have perpetual neophytes than perpetual slobs whose goal seems to be to get rich at the expense of the tax payer.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
...practically every vehicle has a radio in it and most local stations offer streaming. The point is that you are a lot closer to a radio for much of the time than you think.
I'm aware that cars typically have radios. I'm in my car less than an hour a day. I'm next to my phone more than 20. If there's an impending missile strike, I'll likely be seeking out an emergency broadcast, but I probably won't jump in my car.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Once I asked why I should have a Twitter account, and was told, "to get news quicker". My response was, "Why? The 'instant' news is always wrong! I'd rather wait so there's at least a chance it might be somewhat accurate".
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
In reference to a screen grab (in another news article) of the command center in which behind the dept head is clearly a yellow stick with a password on it. The stick note clearly states "password."
The person in charge of media rep later replied "that's to some old non-essential system - nothing important" Keeping it for a friend.
Apparently - it might be the govn'rs missing Twitter password. :-P
The theory behind congressional term limits is that the job of a congressperson is to accumulate pork for their district and their campaign contributors by screwing everyone else, and thus we're better off with them being bad at their jobs.
Unfortunately, I think term limits would just give us politicians even more concerned about pleasing their sponsors so they can pick up a cushy advisory job when they get termed out.
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It's a good sign that the man isn't into Twitter so he can forget his password.
There were other people going around doing their jobs; it's not his job-- that is why somebody doing their job INFORMED HIM of the problem because nobody can be all places at once.
Two parts to the job)
1) Explain what is going on (being in charge = informed or investigating) with some authority behind what you know (supposed to.)
2) Plan how to resolve the problem and prevent future repeats. This step is often skipped because people want #1 immediately and competent administrators are "wasting time" doing way more of part #2 than part #1.
If you judge leadership on quickness to please YOU with #1 you bias the system to promote people more talented at #1 than #2. Bullshit artists on into social media benefit greatly from you complainers - YOU people are part of the problem of poor government.
I would assume other staff doing their job would inform others BESIDES just me about the problem. The Governor is supposed to govern which does not mean covering breaking news-- there is was a whole profession for doing that... (have we forgotten what reporters are???)
A competent Governor should be the last person you hear from at the end of the event... and later on when they implement their plan to fix it.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Maybe he does. Doesn't mean the "moral crusaders" don't need to eat crow too.
He could just write his password in a Post-It and put it on his monitor. You know, like his emergency management guys...
The Twitter password was on the postit note in the Hawaii EOC picture from last summer. He should have just called them.
I can count the number of people who are "good at their job" in congress on the fingers of one hand. Are you aware that congress has about a 9% approval rating?
Of course "Congress" has a low approval rating. Most of the members of Congress do not represent you -- they represent their own districts and their own people and they work to bring resources (jobs, money, etc) to their people. If they don't, then everyone else will get all the good stuff, the people of that district will get angry, and they'll not vote for that member of congress for reelection.
The funny thing is... most people really like THEIR particular member of congress. It's the people from every other district that they hate.
What a bunch of fucking idiots... Makes you wonder; how the hell Im i not making more $$ than them WTF... ahh yes friends
[($)]
Apparently the big story here is this: though he couldn't do it, he thought he should have used Twitter, instead of the state's website or the directly contacting the news media
No, the story here was that when the news media ASKED him why he DIDN'T use Twitter, he told them he had forgotten his password. That doesn't say he wasn't communicating in other ways. It doesn't say that he thought that Twitter was the right way to communicate. It just deals with some allegedly horrific 17 minute gap "in the tape" of tweets where the Governor did not send a tweet when others were. Oh my God. The Governor didn't tweet. How awful! We could have all died!
It isn't the Governor's job to call all the media in such an event. There is a department of the government that has that job. In Oregon it is called the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OOEM), which used to be just OEM. There is an entire Joint Operations Center intended to deal with such things, and state communications staff on-site 24/7, and the media are on speed-dial. I dare say, most of the media wouldn't recognize the voice of the Governor on the phone if they were married to him.
You know, there's no cellphone signal in a bunker.
Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
Congress is 535 people, only three of whom are nominally supposed to represent you. 3/535 is about 0.2% expected approval.
Math is not your speciality.
9% is nearly fifty times the expected approval rating for that situation.
Math is really not your speciality.
The President is supposed to represent one hundred percent of the people. Not just his party, not just his base, not just his personal corporations. He has about a third of his nominal potential approval rating.
You'll have to tell us what a "nominal potential approval rating" is. I've been following politics closely for many years and never heard that term.
So Congress is about 150 times more popular than the President. Mcconnel, Feinstein, etc are, as a group, 150 times better than the president in popular approval.
Wow, that's so illogical I don't know where to begin to deconstruct it.
Let that sink in for a bit.
Major, epic fail in math, reasoning, understanding. Let that sink in for a bit.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Of course "Congress" has a low approval rating. Most of the members of Congress do not represent you -- they represent their own districts and their own people and they work to bring resources (jobs, money, etc) to their people.
I never said most of congress represents me. I am represented by one person in the house and two senators. Your "of course" makes no sense. I hope you realize approval ratings change over time. CNN says, "Congress's overall 10% approval is the lowest for Congress in Quinnipiac's history of data back to 2003. Using Gallup data beyond that, it's the lowest for Congress in data back to 1974."
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Because the system can only send one of a small number of pre-defined messages and apparently "my bad... ignore the previous message" wasn't one of them.
FTFY
Somehow, 38 minutes later, they somehow managed to send the 'all clear' over the self-same system. Did programmers add an additional message, test it, then roll it into production in those 38 minutes, or did it take 38 minutes to find the [More] button to provide the operator with access to the 'all clear, no problem' message option?
Ken