Thread by @CaptJaneway2017

Regarding the Presidential Alert...

🛑It's NOT AN 'ACTUAL EMERGENCY'. 🛑 It's not NEW.

Anti-Obama folks made the SAME mistake in 2013.

Allowing a POTUS to send unblockable nationwide alerts was part of the WARN Act of 2006 under BUSH. Please read the history in this THREAD:

Pres Bush signed the Warning Alert Response & Network Act in 2006. It provided for the Wireless Emergency Alert’s creation, & made it mandatory for wireless co's participating to make presidential alerts unblockable on cells & other devices using cell data bit.ly/2MAggEd

The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) was established in 2008 pursuant to the WARN Act & became operational in 2012. Per FCC data, system's been used more than 33,000 times to warn public of dangerous weather, missing children, & other critical situations via alerts on cell phones.

The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) was created later, which brought together the two existing alert systems - the Emergency Alert System & the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system. That's background so that you'll appreciate the next, more important tweet...

🔥IPAWS Modernization Act of 2015, authorized by (R) Congress in 2015, stated "system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety." Signed as law by Pres Obama in 2016.

The alert was always "known" as a Presidential Alert on the back end of things. THIS KIND OF ALERT WAS NEVER TESTED tho - thus the ruckus you see now. The various Alerts via the sytem aren't perfect & need testing, evidenced by the prior drama in Hawaii. tcrn.ch/2DrHlqj

Presidential alerts ARE solely at discretion of a POTUS, but that was always true for Bush (via EAS), Obama, & now Trump. In 2013, the far-right freaked out abt "Emperor Obama" sending alerts against their will. Let's not push fake news LIKE THEY DID. 👍🏽
msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-…

However, knowing Trump's UNPRESIDENTIAL behaviors, it's understandable people are concerned. How likely is it he will mis-use the Alert like he does Twitter? Not very. Trump can't type the message & hit send. There are processes & people between him & the actual message. Read on:

Below is a link to the actual PROTOCOL document. Pay special attention to page 34. It shows you how complex putting together the message is, especially for a complete numpty like Trump. People using IPAWS take at least 2 courses in how to use the system.
eas-cap.org/ECIG-CAP-to-EA…

IPAWS allows usage of Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), NOAA's Weather Radio, & other public alerting systems via a single interface. IPAWS "belongs" to FEMA. Head of FEMA's chosen by POTUS. FEMA reports to Dept of Homeland Security. But remember:

...as I mentioned, misuse by Trump would be BREAKING THE LAW created by Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2015, part of which I've shown below. The GOP Congress doesn't care much about law where 45 is concerned, so - that may not be very comforting.

I will mention that the ONE thing considered *NEW* about the Presidential Alert - is that it will actually show on media devices as "Presidential Alert". My understanding is that was not part of the process before now. I can find no details at this time re: how that came to be.

There has been a GREAT deal of overreach by the Feds starting with (and since) the Bush Jr presidency, in my opinion. Is this a part of that? Is a Presidential Alert necessary from ANY president? If so, under what circumstance? When you allow it for one POTUS, you allow for all.

According to the FEMA website, "FEMA invites the public to send comments on the nationwide EAS-WEA test to [e-mail]"

Pretty sure the comments they are hoping for relate to whether the Alert went through like it should. But hey - do what you feel w/that 😉