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by Axios | 9.17.18

Countable asks: Would you take a message from the president more seriously than one from FEMA? Or would you turn off your phone to avoid a text from Trump? Hit Take Action and tell your reps. (Via Axios)

The U.S. government plans to test out a modern version of the emergency broadcast system, sending what's known as a presidential alert on Thursday. In response, some people are vowing to turn their cellphones off in a sign of protest.

The bottom line: What would ordinarily be just a test of a modern age emergency warning has turned political, because this is the Trump administration and everything is political.

How it works: Americans have been getting various emergency messages sent to their phones since 2012, including weather warnings and Amber Alerts. The same system also allows the president to send alerts in the event of a nationwide emergency, though no such message has ever been issued.

While similar to text messages, the emergency alerts, including presidential alerts, are actually shorter (a maximum of 90 characters). They also come with a special alert tone designed to distinguish them from other messages.
The commercial mobile alert system, as the effort is known, is a public-private partnership involving the wireless industry, the FCC, FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

What's happening now: Starting at around 2:18pm ET on Thursday, phones that are on should get a message with a header that says \"Presidential alert\" followed by text that says \"THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Why the test? The government wants to make sure that the system it has in place will actually work as intended. It has tested cellphone alerts before, but this is the first nationwide test for one part of the system.

Be prepared: The government has been running commercials preparing people for the test in a series of public service announcements. One interesting tidbit in the ad I saw was that the alert came in on a Windows Phone, rather than the far more widely used Android or iOS — perhaps the government didn't want to take sides on such a divisive issue.

No stopping it: Consumers can choose to opt out of the Amber alerts and weather warnings, but not presidential alerts. And that's where the protest comes in, with a number of people tweeting that they plan to turn off their devices Thursday and encouraging others to do the same. There's even a hashtag, #godark920.

Trump fears: It's entirely up to the president what to say and when, so there is some fear — stoked by the publicity around Thursday's test — that the president could use it to send partisan messages.

History lesson: There have been issues with past tests, most notably one in Hawaii back in January that briefly terrified residents in the state into thinking they were on the receiving end of a ballistic missile attack.

-Ina Fried

(Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios)

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I believe true equality is giving everyone the tools they need to succeed if that means giving a disabled person more help than that's what's needed, if it means giving a low income person more help then so be it. This is why I could never vote for Trump or the lesser of two evils.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":"","youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":44,"is_following":null,"influence_score":3100,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":72,"following_count":8,"position_count":560,"id":"jZB1PPlW","partner_id":null},{"name":"Della","vote_count":49,"photos":{"large":"https://graph.facebook.com/1798638780165937/picture?width=150&height=150","small":"https://graph.facebook.com/1798638780165937/picture?width=75&height=75","tiny":"https://graph.facebook.com/1798638780165937/picture?width=20&height=20","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/1798638780165937/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/jW2ovXJZ/following","followers":"/api/users/jW2ovXJZ/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":12,"is_following":null,"influence_score":600,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":22,"following_count":54,"position_count":11,"id":"jW2ovXJZ","partner_id":null},{"name":"burrkitty","vote_count":1159,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/8mrvqvpm/large_8mrvqvpm-1581212707.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/8mrvqvpm/small_8mrvqvpm-1581212707.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/8mrvqvpm/tiny_8mrvqvpm-1581212707.jpg","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/724966854372469/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/8mrvqvpm/following","followers":"/api/users/8mrvqvpm/followers"},"about_me":"You may have to confront the risk, the possibility, of your own death. Since the day you were born, that’s always been on the cards. Most of us find it easier to bury our heads in the sand. Avoidance is the #1 most popular coping strategy in the world. We live in denial of the self-evident fact that we all die eventually. The Stoics believed that when we’re confronted with our own mortality, and grasp its implications, that can change our perspective on life quite dramatically. Any of us could die at any moment. Life doesn’t go on forever. If you say that you won't vote in the general election if your candidate doesn't win the nomination, you're saying to millions of people you think their suffering is an appropriate price for your righteous indignation.\nThere is NO moral justification for sitting out this election. IRL I am an environmental hydrogeologist. I specialize in municipal stormwater management and karst groundwater systems. You can deny the effects of anthropogenic forced global climate change all day, but when your water well salts up, your streets and yards flood, or your house falls in a sinkhole or gets crushed by a landslide you will be calling me for help like I am the GD Batman.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"burrkitty","issue_count":139,"is_following":null,"influence_score":15140,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":511,"following_count":40,"position_count":987,"id":"8mrvqvpm","partner_id":null}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":529324,"body":"Hell no on giving Trump the ability to send me a message about anything. Let FEMA do it. 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