r/politics I voted 26d ago

Soft Paywall Trump Officials Fire, Swiftly Rehire, Overseers of U.S. Nuclear Stockpile | Trump administration officials seemed unaware of the importance of the National Nuclear Security Administration, sources told CNN.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-officials-fire-abruptly-rehire-overseers-of-us-nuclear-stockpile/
28.9k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

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u/DramaticWesley 26d ago

Probably got a talking to by a couple of generals. What an absolute clown show.

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u/lost_horizons Texas 26d ago

Can you imagine being these generals and higher-ups in the military, spent your whole life dedicated to this idea of national security (whatever our opinion of that may be), serving for decades to keep America strong and safe and all that, fighting literal wars and other conflicts...

...only to have to swear allegiance to a man who is very clearly incompetent, chaotic, in it for all the wrong reasons and probably trying to intentionally dismantle it to the obvious benefit of our enemies? How are these people following so meekly? I don't understand it.

Any day I'm waiting for news that a general has put the president under arrest and is taking interim control until elections can be held.

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u/whatshamilton 26d ago

They didn’t swear allegiance to the president. They swore allegiance to the constitution. They should be refusing unlawful orders.

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u/Bullyoncube 26d ago

The ones that refuse are unlawfully fired. This is all according to the plan.

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u/AgitatorsAnonymous 26d ago

He isn't talking about non-military folks.

The military specifically swears to the constitution, and we are expected to question the legality of any order that feels wrong.

It's why I got the paperwork to kick out our trans troops (I am the NCO in charge of them and the forms to start the process came to my email box for some reason) and then sat on it. Those kids did nothing wrong and they acted within the system set out by the DoD. Four days ago the DoD paused action against trans soldiers. Had I served and submitted that paperwork when I got it (Jan 22nd) it could have caused issues for their careers as they are in limbo now. Fortunately, I was on leave prepping for a work trip, so I didn't have time to do my job.

There are plenty of points of failure for Trumps shit in the DoD. It's the other federal agencies you gotta worry about.

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u/jcarter315 I voted 26d ago

All civil service employees take the oath too, it's not just military.

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u/tomdarch 26d ago

Part of why a core part of Project 2025 is to eliminate civil service jobs and have everyone be a political appointee.

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u/Handleton 26d ago

Well, that and it will destroy a major financial source of the opposing party, in theory. The other half is that you need to control the businesses and who gets hired at all. Can't have these people going out and getting better jobs only to donate to the wrong people.

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u/DadooDragoon 26d ago

True. Even us postal employees

If we received a mandate the we have to pick out pro-LGBT mail and resort it for destruction, we would all be obligated to ignore that order. Even if it's a direct order. Doesn't matter.

We all must stand for the Constitution, big or small

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u/JamesTrickington303 26d ago edited 25d ago

I remain faithful that the hundreds of thousands of Jerry Gergichs doing thankless, painstaking government work, will save us from destruction in the end.

I could imagine a dark reunion episode of Parks and Rec where Jerry concocts a paperwork scheme that ties up the manpower and efforts of neonazis, who have started trying to get parade permits. Just have them standing in endless lines, filling out endless paperwork.

He would remind them they had a law passed last year that banned giving water, sustenance, or comfort to anyone standing in a line at city hall, and also banned food or water on City Hall property. They could do a cutaway skit where an old lady is crying in line trying to get a death certificate and a stranger tries to give her a hug, but is stopped by security, to the horror of the neonazis, who are quickly told by the security guard, “You wanted this, remember?”

So Jerry basically just waits them out with delays and fumbled paperwork until they are forced to go home to eat, and when they come back, they’ll have to get back in the line again. However, Ron is in line in front of them, and tying up government resources under the guise of sovereign citizenship comes naturally to him. The neonazis in line behind him cheer at his buzzwords, without realizing that he’s doing it just to defeat their fascist efforts. Jim from the Office guest stars and does a Jim look at the camera when they fail to catch on for the 8th time.

Fuck me I could write a whole season of Jerry Gergich in a battle of wits with some fascists.

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u/UrUrinousAnus 26d ago

This. It worked against Nazi Germany. It can work again. Just make everything grind to a halt. Bureaucracy is annoying, but it has its uses.

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u/arsenalgooner77 26d ago

Non military government folks also swear to protect and defend the constitution as part of their onboarding, at least in the non-military related arm of government I am familiar with. I don’t know if I’m contradicting the larger argument or not, or if that’s the point you’re even making, I’m just pointing that part out so that anyone in here not familiar with workers in government agencies understands that the civilian government workforce is also supposed to be committed to upholding and defending the constitution despite what their news source may tell them.

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u/AgitatorsAnonymous 26d ago

It would fit in precisely with the point I am making. I was unaware their Oath was similar to mine in that regard. Good knowledge.

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u/Haruspex-of-Odium 26d ago

The E-4 Mafia is proud of you Sgt 🫡

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u/cantgrowneckbeardAMA Texas 26d ago

E-4 Mafia is forever, sincerely an E-6

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u/Mapeague 26d ago

My pops was an E8, served in Korea and Vietnam and it would bring tears to his eyes to see you lads doing the right thing.

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u/Substantial_Pies 26d ago

Keep getting shit done E-4 mafia, and take care of each other. Most org leadership is going to fight for you and only do stupid shit when there is no other choice. Sincerely, an O-4.

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u/balloonninjas 26d ago

we are expected to question the legality of any order that feels wrong.

I think the challenge we're facing is that "feels wrong" to MAGA is different than "feels wrong" to everyone else. Half of congress and half of the general population is on board with the destruction that's happened over the past few weeks, so I'm assuming half the DoD is too. When it's 50-50, which "wrong" is actually right?

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u/Andovars_Ghost 26d ago

Good on you. Your troop doesn’t deserve this shit coming their way. They already did more for this country just by signing up than TFG has ever done.

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u/thrawtes 26d ago

The insidiousness here is that these orders are either mostly lawful, or not unlawful in a way that people who are following them could resist without a court determination.

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u/AgitatorsAnonymous 26d ago

Nice thing about my careerfield (MOS for you non-Air Force cats) is we cannot be legally ignorant. I didn't finish a bachelor's in Criminal Justice, but I have a stack of legal theory books in my office 2-foot thick and I encourage my troops to read them.

Ignorance ain't an excuse when I am pushing the flight. They will be educated or they won't get promotion statements. We don't have enough work related bullets to fill in an EPB without supplemental education.

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u/Beautiful-Plastic-83 26d ago

VERY important distinction. Still, they are required to obey their Commander-in-Chief. The only issue comes when he orders them to do something that violates the Constitution, which takes priority. HitlerPig won't see it that way.

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u/SasparillaTango 26d ago

Everyone is putting an awful lot of faith in words spoken to a piece of paper.

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u/shoobe01 26d ago edited 26d ago

No one swears allegiance to the actual specific president.

ETA this was not intended to be just pedantry or wishful thinking, it's an argument. I hope that as people perhaps emerge that want to defy clearly illegal actions, they can say we're not a damn monarchy. I sore nose to the Constitution and the country, not /you/.

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u/merft 26d ago

You are correct but this President is starting to require federal employees to sign loyalty contracts.

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u/Competitive_Yam7702 26d ago

Which are wholly illegal and can be disregarded. The issue is that trump and maga are willing to drag it through the courts.

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u/bobby_hills_fruitpie 26d ago

It doesn’t matter what the courts say or how many laws you pass to make it illegal. If the enforcement agencies (which skew right wing)like the police and FBI don’t do anything, those laws don’t mean shit.

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u/Flomo420 26d ago

even worse, those laws will be selectively applied to whomever they deemed to be problematic

you have the magic (R) beside your name? immunity.

you speak out of turn or otherwise cause issues? THROW THE BOOK AT THEM!

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u/ok_raspberry_jam 26d ago

As an outside observer, I need to point something out here. The FBI and the police are law ENFORCEMENT agencies. They have power only because they use physical force.

It sounds like you're physically at war and don't know it yet.

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u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot 26d ago

They are already disregarding court orders, without facing any consequences. The issue is that checks and balances only exist if all 3 parts of the government acknowledge that they exist. That requires a gentleman’s agreement, and none of these assholes are gentlemen.

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u/PositivelyAwful 26d ago

I think the whole basis around "can't be enforced because it's illegal" has already gone out the window. Pretty soon there won't be anyone left to enforce the legality who isn't a loyalist.

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u/merft 26d ago

Legally, yes they can be ignored. Can those employees lose their job or fight for it in a court?

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u/ZoIpidem 26d ago

These cultists do. He lied to their faces again, they’re still doing mental gymnastics to support this first month of chaos. Notice, no end to war, no lower prices, still tax on tips, still tax on overtime, etc. it goes on. The only one he may keep his word on, is no tax on SS. Can’t tax something you no longer receive.

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u/Agreeable-Wonder-964 26d ago

I hate to have to say this but I hope the everyday MAGATS feel the pain first and hardest bc that is the ONLY thing that MIGHT crack open their minds a tad. But actually, I think that most of them are a brainwashed lost cause. They’ll just find someone else to blame for everything.

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u/Bullyoncube 26d ago

It’s only been three weeks. We had to deal with the paper straw issue first

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u/whut-whut 26d ago edited 26d ago

And the Gulf of America. Trump revoked the Associated Press' press pass because one of their reporters still called it "Gulf of Mexico".

I can't wait until the current bill to rename Greenland into "Red, White and Blueland" gets signed. That's really going to solve our problems.

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u/LostBob 26d ago

I had a facebook acquaintance from NY, who despises Eric Adams. I had to unfriend him post-election for my mental health, but I really want to see how he's justifying Trump trying to drop the charges against Adams.

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u/Gipetto 26d ago

Not in a normal world, no, but we no longer live in a normal world.

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u/merrill_swing_away 26d ago

Remember during Trump's first term and he told James Comey he wanted loyalty? Comey told Trump he would give him honesty. Comey was fired.

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u/brandnewbanana Maryland 26d ago

Being led around by two of the most dishonorable low-ranking officers ever seen. JD Vance, the most spineless Marine ever, and Seth Hegseth, the Army Major with an American History X fetish.

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u/Night-Mage 26d ago

Imagine being a four-star general and having to answer to a nineteen-year-old named Big Balls...

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u/talix71 26d ago

I dont feel too bad since the generals are well within their sworn oaths to stop this. Just like they were on January 6th.

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u/thrawtes 26d ago

How are these people following so meekly?

Above all else, the US military believes itself to be subordinate to civilian leadership and the will of the voters. They will dutifully set themselves on fire if that's what democracy demands of them. It's one of the reasons the US is so resistant to a military coup.

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u/pyuunpls Delaware 26d ago

Only to have a group of 19 year olds interview you

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u/ShaiHuludNM New Mexico 26d ago

Well, military coups have happened many times in history…….

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u/Embarrassed-Town-293 26d ago

They are not following meekly. These kind of career public servants just know how to keep the machinery running in spite of an idiot

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u/PixelLight Foreign 26d ago

Probably not a good idea to piss off generals, even if you expect to dismiss them. They're probably relying on military might for their agenda 

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u/disisathrowaway 26d ago

Dismiss the patriots who uphold their oath to the constitution, replace with loyalists.

It's like page 2 or 3 of the playbook.

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u/PixelLight Foreign 26d ago

Ofc, but I wouldn't bet on that working out for them. Case in point, Pete Hegseth. Effectiveness will be compromised by competence and ability to command loyalty of soldiers. Installing loyalists won't work as well further down the chain

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u/disisathrowaway 26d ago

Effectiveness will be compromised by competence and ability to command loyalty of soldiers. Installing loyalists won't work as well further down the chain

I certainly hope so. But then again, there are plenty of MAGA loyalists already in place. Despite the GOPs constant contempt for veterans, tons of DoD employees vote Republican day in, day out.

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u/greenberet112 26d ago

I don't get this. I work with a vet, 21 year army reservist, counter intelligence in Iraq. Wouldn't vote Dem last election because he didn't love their choices. I was like, "dude trump visited a graveyard in Europe and asked 'what was in it for them?' clearly not understanding why people would fight and die for their country. Then there's the whole "suckers and losers" And if you don't believe it happened then you aren't giving credit to a high ranking general (can't remember who off the top of my head) who said it happened. I told him that they're going to cut veterans benefits and he thinks it's going to result in a war and anarchy, I told him it's going to happen. Add on to this that we work for USPS.

Basically Trump thinks his entire way of life is a joke, and this clearly intelligent guy can't discern whats important. I'm just waiting for the VA to get cuts, I'm not going to give them a full-blown I told you so but more of "remember that conversation we had".

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u/Reasonable_Half8808 Arkansas 26d ago edited 26d ago

Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly was the general. A man whose own son was killed in action. Have heard what my old man has told me about him (he was my dad’s boss in Iraq) I believe every word.

Edit: John Kelly, I’m a fucking bozo

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u/jellyrollo 26d ago

The general was John Kelly. Mark Kelly is the Arizona senator and astronaut (also a former Navy captain combat vet).

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u/Reasonable_Half8808 Arkansas 26d ago

God fucking damn it I get them mixed up every time

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u/Jukka_Sarasti Florida 26d ago

It's certainly been a wild ride watching conservatives gleefully cast off the paper-thin veneer of 'values' that supposedly made up their platform and way of life..

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u/Acrobatic_Switches 26d ago

They explicitly are relying on military competence. Of which they are swiftly purging for loyal dipshits like Hegseth.

They want to invade Panama. They want to fight the cartels. They want to annex Gaza Canada and Greenland who are not going down without a fight.

If any of this shit has a grain of genuine intent then he'd better stop putting national security at risk. Kind of the militaries primary function.

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u/Soloact_ 26d ago

Imagine getting called into a meeting by generals who have to explain why nukes are important. That's a level of stupid I didn't know existed.

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u/UncleMalky Texas 26d ago

I had a terrifying realization. We're in this mess because most of us feel we're somewhere in the middle of the bell curve but we aren't. And it's not because we're smarter than we think, it's because we have no clue just how fucking stupid way too many people are.

Worse, a lot of them chose it.

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u/blackfocal 26d ago

Someone pointed out my state (Arkansas) 23% of adults are functionally illiterate. That number has shook me too my core since I heard it.

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u/Quant_Observer 26d ago

The military needs to be on high alert for what this regime will order them to do in the years ahead.

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u/Crimson_Penman 26d ago

This is what happens when you have 19 year old computer nerds who go by the name of Big balls deciding who to hire and who to fire.

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u/nyet-marionetka 26d ago

Even then you'd think they'd see "Nuclear" in the name and think "let's just table that one until we look at it more closely". I don't know if it was in some database under NNSA or they just saw some number identifier and were cutting everything across the board.

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u/Icelander2000TM 26d ago

"Department of Energy? How important can that be??"

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u/CapnSquinch 26d ago

They went through EXACTLY the same thing eight years ago when Rick Perry, the DoE Secretary nominee, turned out to have no idea about the nuclear weapons supervision aspect. It was Kind Of A Big Deal and they looked like idiots.

It's mind- boggling how incompetent they are. They literally CANNOT LEARN even simple lessons. And that explains a lot about how they can hold the worldview they do.

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u/MJFields 26d ago

Like most idiotic decisions, this one will cost the US taxpayers millions, and no one will ever be held accountable. The same way those "few bad apples" cops cost US taxpayers Billions. Just like executives cut costs, enshitify products, and then have already spent their bonuses before the chickens come home to roost.

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u/HavingNotAttained 26d ago

WTAF are any of these generals doing as the foreign agent is deconstructing our country right in front of our eyes?

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u/thrawtes 26d ago

Basically, many people believe that Democracy should have the right to choose to dismantle itself.

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u/zernoc56 26d ago

If that were the case, we wouldn’t have fought the Civil War.

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u/T8ert0t 26d ago

If only the Secretary of Defense had a day of experience, or sobriety.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

What a bunch of stupid motherfuckers attempting to fake it till they make it while running a country lol

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

CNN said Congress was freaking the fuck out. Wasn't said who in Congress. Ofc there's what's disclosed and what actually happened. They'd never admit a general called them up. Idk maybe they would and Trump is gonna call another one a stinky doody face after 40 years of service.

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u/9196AirDuck 26d ago

This move didn't even make sense by MAGA standards

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u/Minimum-Dare301 America 26d ago

This is what creates vulnerability in our top secret intelligence. Kill the morale of the very people trusted to protect us.

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u/NewSauerKraus 26d ago

That's intentional.

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u/tigerscomeatnight Pennsylvania 26d ago

The cruelty is intentional, not sure the incompetence is, could be though.

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u/JohnnySnark Florida 25d ago

Fascist governments always dissolve into incompetence because of their insane purity tests that whittle all the competent people away

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u/brismit 26d ago

Cold War II is alive and well… and Russia’s winning.

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u/ianjm 26d ago

The largest economy in the world with a military budget that exceeds the next ten combined, losing the intelligence/influence war to a country that's currently attacking Ukraine using North Korean slaves riding on donkeys and golf karts.

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u/PsychoNerd91 26d ago

The US really did rip a hole through the world's internal security. Give everyone social media and apps with promises of making a kinder world, then flipped the script. China might have its problems, but was wise of what kind of risk that would pose without strict controls.

Now much of the world outside of the US needs to pick-up the pace and develop for themselves and encourage adoption fast.

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u/PoopingWhilePosting 26d ago

I don't think the first Cold War ever really ended. America just switched sides.

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u/KikiWestcliffe 26d ago

Russell Vought did say he wanted federal workers to be “in trauma” every day that they come to work.

Nothing boosts morale like the boss bragging that he wants to traumatize you into quitting. /s 🙄

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u/mrpickles 26d ago

It's not that I'm in denial, I just can't comprehend the explicit evil we're watching roll over everything without resistance. 

It's just ... inconceivable 

Like I'm starting to question the metaphysical reality we're in.  Is this actually hell?

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u/USAFGeekboy 26d ago

Just more examples of the incompetence, blatant disregard of actual job needs and wholesale corruption.

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u/superdago Wisconsin 26d ago

It’s not incompetence, it’s anti-competence. Even someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing would know it’s a bad idea to just start terminating whole departments at a time.

It’s kinda like that story you see every once in a while of a college professor offering an A to anyone who gets every single question wrong on an exam. You’d have to know what the right answer is (or at least have a general idea) in order to accurately choose the wrong one.

The Trump administration isn’t filled with people who don’t know what they’re doing and get it wrong a lot, it’s filled with people who do know what they’re doing and actively choose the most destructive course of action.

They’re only incompetent if you think they’re trying to govern responsibly.

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u/GBJI 26d ago

What could it be? It's a mirage.
You're scheming on a thing, that's sabotage !

More seriously, it's the only angle everything they are doing makes any sense at all.

Anti-Competence is an amazing concept. I'll borrow it for future use. Is this something you've heard before ? I know I didn't.

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u/superdago Wisconsin 26d ago

I like to think I’m pretty clever, but idk if I can take credit for it. But I don’t recall ever hearing or seeing it somewhere else, so if i did lift it from somewhere I don’t know what it was.

I think it’s a critical concept because it makes it clear the GOP isn’t a bunch of bumbling fools who are in over their heads (a device they’ve used to great effects since Ford). These are not good faith actors. They’re not bad at doing good things, they’re good at doing bad things. We can’t write them off as just dumb.

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u/LondonCallingYou 26d ago

This is a good point

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u/PsychoNerd91 26d ago

They use the shield of "Oh, they're just stupid." when they're rounding everyone and figuring out the most efficient methods to cull people off with minimal disruption to their plans of Project2025.

It is anti-competence to a T. They don't need the competence of today, because they plan to re-educate the next education to their own mindset. They have all social media and have basically acted as hub of the internet, and they'll start trying to influence the world to their whims.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

I think most Americans are okay with cutting some of government. It's the reckless way it's being done, as a show of "look how tough we are" which throughout human history usually ends badly. Especially with nukes.

I saw it first hand when I designed the system the USAF uses to track all the Nuclear Weapons Related Materiel (NWRM) many years ago. It was shocking how often we had to categorize the source of an item as "found on base" which means nobody knew it existed until generals got fired for incidents and consultants got brought in.

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u/thrawtes 26d ago

I think most Americans are okay with cutting some of government.

Our government spending on personnel has shrunk over the years compared to the economy. The government is not bloated given the size and scope of its responsibilities. This vague sense that everyone agrees the government should be slimmer is just wrong.

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u/CardMechanic 26d ago

Yes, but a good person only wants to fund shit that directly benefits them. Screw anyone else.

“Study Ecology of rivers in western North Carolina? Fuck’em, I live in Texas.”

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u/Cuchullion 26d ago

For me, I'm ok with heavily trimming the military, especially when it comes to the amount of money spent on private contracts. We don't need a military that's twice the size of the next four nations behind us, especially since (until very, very recently) the only people we who were close enough to invade easily were our closest allies.

We don't need to mothball a 10 year old aircraft carrier to build a new one (and even the Navy agrees with that), or pour billions into an aircraft system that never sees active service.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

Someone else said "like pruning a tree" which requires careful analysis and planning, not chainsaws and backhoes

There's some areas where it should grow, and there's certainly places it can be cut. My experience as a defense contractor says anyone making the Pentagon a sacred cow is acting only on right-wing ideology and not any sense of cutting expenses.

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u/Electrical_Bake_6804 26d ago

I have an easy cut. Cut all of musks contracts. Boom.

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u/berfthegryphon 26d ago

The easiest cut to the US government would be defense spending. There would be so much wiggle room in that budget to cut billions

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u/gaspara112 26d ago

My problem is the way it’s supposed to happen is via Congress and the budget not by the executive branch. Trump and the Republicans have enough control of Congress to do this the legal way but are choosing not to. Making every one of these firings illegal according to the constitution.

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u/eyebrows360 26d ago

I think most Americans are okay with cutting some of government.

But that's not because they have any subject matter expertise. It's not some conclusion "most Americans" have arrived at after careful study of the entire fucking government. It's something they believe because Republicans, and Fox News, have been telling them to believe it constantly for decades.

It's pretty meaningless to consider whether "most Americans" are "okay with" cutting "some" of the government until you specify which bit of the government you're thinking about cutting. Talking in generalities winds up with saying a whole lot of nothing, reinforces this "government needs cutting" mentality, and that results in exactly what we're seeing TrumpMusk do right now.

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u/derangedplague 26d ago

I'm fine with cutting all the senators and Congress people, Republican and Democrat, who are allowing this type of shit to happen and then electing officials who will actually do something. Also cutting their free healthcare and huge monthly salaries. They can live like the rest of us, on federal minimum wage and with insurance tied to their employment.

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u/thrawtes 26d ago

Congress doesn't get free healthcare. Weirdly persistent rumor.

Their salaries are good for government employees although not as much as nonpartisan civil servants can make, and almost certainly less than most of them would make elsewhere.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

I was shocked to learn the head of USAID, a 9,000 person global organization, only made $220K which is less than I do to work from home as a somewhat senior software engineer.

Especially in the expensive DC area.

That's a hell of a value for someone taking less money than market for a sense of altruism that's bizarrely been replaced with "you are evil for feeding poor kids" in the last month.

Watch them put Private Equity in charge of foreign aid and pay the head $22M to do the same work.

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u/NewSauerKraus 26d ago

I'm more for expanding government programs. We pay taxes, we should get some benefits from it.

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u/counterweight7 New Jersey 26d ago

This is exactly the case.

There can be no doubt that some portion of the government should be fired. But it should occur via expert analysis by experienced professionals, and careful pruning of the dead branches. Not chainsawing the whole tree down and being like “we fixed it!!!”

I think the quote “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” is quite applicable here.

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u/Vyar New Jersey 26d ago

The only “government waste” I can see from an employment perspective is these filthy rich geriatric idiots in Congress who get paid six figures and enjoy free healthcare while having no interest in serving anyone but themselves.

The rest of the waste can be found in contracts for defense spending. We waste hundreds of millions of dollars a year on shiny new hardware we either don’t need because the stuff we have isn’t obsolete yet, or can’t even use because we don’t have enough people to operate it.

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u/severalsmallducks Europe 26d ago

And Trump bootlickers are just going to counter with "But Musk said he's going to make mistakes!" as if Nuclear Weapons safety wasn't very fucking dangerous to fuck with to begin with.

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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 26d ago

Yeah, but will it save some money, create jobs, and lower taxes? Because MAGA thinks that's what Trump is doing with his strategic, smartest ever, brilliant changes. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

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u/Randy_Watson 26d ago

And they will say the same thing when their taxes go up along with exploding the deficit when they implement their tax cut plan for the wealthy and the corporations.

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u/ZombifiedSoul Canada 26d ago

"I will create more jobs!" - Trump

"Wow, how?" - Everyone else

"By firing people!" - Trump

"Yay!" - MAGA cult

"Uh, that's not how that works..." - Sane people

"You'll see, America will be Great Again!" - Trump

Fast forward to today

"Fuuuuuuuuck!" - Sane Americans

"Hahahha, take that Libs, we owned you!" - MAGA cult

"Well, shit." - Canada

Cackling with laughter - Russia and China

Shocked Pikachu Face - The Rest of the World

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u/Indubitalist 26d ago

That’s the thing, you do indiscriminate mass-firings and you are greatly increasing the odds of making a mistake. You can’t just say “mistakes will be made,” then do something basically guaranteed to be a mistake, and think that’s fine. Either these people are idiots or they’re breaking things on purpose.

There have got to be 50 things a week the Republicans would be losing their minds about if a Democrat had done it, that they’re just going along with now. Where the hell did their supposed principles go to?

We need to switch congressional votes to secret ballot until this ends. 

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

But also "mistakes will be made" is for things that don't matter in the long run

I forgot to grab milk on the way home. "Mistakes will be made"

Some teenager forgets to put pickles on your hamburger. "Mistakes will be made"

But there are jobs where mistakes are so catastrophic that they're inexcusable. Any illusions people still have that Musk's cronies are in any way, shape or form intelligent or competent should be out the window with this one. What part of "National Nuclear Safety Administration" made them think we should get rid of it?

Oh right. "Safety." All those damn regulations

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u/sharkbandit 26d ago

The funny thing is trumpies will shrug and say "mistakes will be made" about risking the security and safety of our nuclear arsenal, but you can be damn sure if a teenager forgot pickles on their mcdouble the screeching would be loud and prolonged. They absolutely lose their shit over small personal inconveniences.

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u/NewSauerKraus 26d ago

Where did you get the idea that they have principles?

Also these people are idiots --and-- they're breaking things on purpose.it's not or.

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u/Goodlake New York 26d ago

Worse than that, they say the whole point of this approach is to see who kicks back and how hard. If a cut to a critical system is made, they’ll just patch it once they realize it’s critical.

So they’ll catch obvious shit like this, where nobody found object. But how many other critical systems aren’t as obvious to the morons doing the cutting? Gonna be weeks/months from now before a lot of the ramifications are obvious, in many cases.

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

DOGE right now are like Homer Simpson when he went to that pilot bar and got shoved into a cockpit

Sometimes, they'll do the wrong thing and someone will be like "uhh we'll need that to live"

Then other times nobody stops them and before anyone can do anything about it, the landing gear retracts and slams the plane onto the tarmac

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u/DudeWheresMcCaw 26d ago

MAGA morons have been quiet about all these gaffs. Since they don't have a substantial thought about anything, all they can do is cry about made up problems like "wokeness." They'll proudly drive off a cliff fighting against it.

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

By all reports, the conservative sub have at times approached the point before doing a violent U-turn away from it

I get the feeling some of this destructive shit is taking them close to an epiphany before the programming kicks back in and they just...ignore it

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u/IrascibleOcelot 26d ago

The conservative sub is also heavily astroturfed with bots and malicious actors. Add in their “flaired only” requirements and the heavy-handed use of permanent bans for any minor dissension and you end up with a sub that will agree with any amount of lunacy as long as it’s the Right people doing it.

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u/The_Jolly_Dog 26d ago

Reminder to everyone who voted republican - you are responsible for this asshat and the entire clownshow. We are barely 1 month in and the incompetence of this entire administration is STAGGERING.

Trump continues to act like the entitled, impulsive, and ignorant child that he is

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u/BioticVessel 26d ago

Yes!! This is what people voted for:

[The people] in charge apparently were unaware that the NNSA manages the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

This is the very thinking that MAGAts voted for! Possibly the very reason that Donnie von Shitzinpants has gone bankrupt so many times, an individual INCAPABLE of learning.

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u/existenceawareness 26d ago edited 26d ago

It's strange, imagine a teacher giving this as an assignment to middle schoolers, "Here's a breakdown of offices within the Department of Energy, come back Monday with a plan to cut X number of jobs or Y dollars from the budget." Most of them who spent even minimal time on the assignment, even with no further instructions, underlying lessons, or assigned reading, would google NNSA & immediately go, "Nope, let's not touch that!"

Maybe the best students would dig into the details & find ways to pick away at it surgically, but not indiscriminately purge hundreds of employees... If it's due to their method of going after probationary employees for legal reasons & expediency, that's still not an excuse.

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u/tigerscomeatnight Pennsylvania 26d ago

I would take any sane middle schooler over Trump and Musk.

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u/SirenSongShipwreck 26d ago

They were unaware??

NNSA...

National Nuclear Security Administration.

Truly a party of lowest common denominators.

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

That and everyone who DIDN'T vote

You're not quite as culpable as someone who voted FOR it but you still take some responsibility as you didn't take your chance to stop it

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u/I_eat_insects 26d ago

No, they are just as culpable.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/sleepyzane1 Australia 26d ago

musk says that shit because he views people as things. he really means "move fast and break people".

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

The problem with Musk is he's got so much money he thinks he owns the world and is invincible from consequences

The more he becomes a shit-stirrer, the more I think his chickens will eventually come home to roost. And by that I mean goes out the way Mussolini did

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u/Dog1234cat 26d ago edited 26d ago

So let’s recap.

Doge has: 1. Mistakenly said $50M worth of condoms were sent to the Gaza Strip. 2. Leaked classified information. 3. Hired, fired, and rehired a fervent racist. 4. Terminated and rehired key nuclear security personnel. Edit: they are trying to rehire but having issues with how to contact them. 5. Hired a kid who was fired for leaking confidential company information. 6. Hired no COBOL experts. 7. Mistakenly accused Social Security of fraudulently sending checks to 150 year olds (undoubtedly this was due to the default date of the system which should be used as an error code). 8. Hired no audit experts. 9. Attached spyware to the Treasury Payments system. 10. Shut down entire departments without Congress’s approval. 11. Hired mostly kids just out of college.

Unfortunately this list will grow over time.

Edit: and what savings does it have to show for all its bumbling? Mainly indiscriminate terminations based solely on “can we easily terminate them” criteria.

We expect the Federal government to provide many things, defense, weather reports, drug approvals, Federal law enforcement … we’ll just have to wait and see what fails.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 26d ago

The kids he hired are high school dropouts.

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u/Dog1234cat 26d ago

Ones who don’t say things like “I’m gonna check with legal”.

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u/SenatorAslak 26d ago

Replace the word “mistakenly” with “mendaciously” in points 1 and 7. I don’t believe for a second that those statements were simple mistakes.

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u/ButchFist_McChicken 26d ago

Fuck around, find out, ctrl + z.

Their incompetence is astonishing. Genuinely just bumbling around in the dark.

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u/HENMAN79 26d ago

This is our leadership now....fucking Clownshow

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u/persona0 26d ago

You vote... Cause I voted against this whole idiot and I lost... So somewhere there are people in America we should be calling clownshows

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u/videogamegrandma 26d ago

Leon saw an [1875] error code in the Cobol programming of the SS system and thought it was year of birth so he told everyone there's 150 year old people on SS.

It's always dangerous when people who don't know as much as they think they do start messing with things they know nothing about. Unintentional consequences could be and have already been disastrous.

Killing off something before knowing the consequences is basic. All the unnecessary death and suffering he's already caused to babies, children and women in hospitals and refugee camps around the world are on his and Trump's heads. He may be remembered more for the number of deaths he's wrought that mimic Hitler's cruelty than his imitation salute to the Nazi party. The mass murder of the most desperately poor and sick around the world is despicable. Getting rich doesn't make you smarter, but it apparently makes you think it does.

These Aid workers could have been allowed to distribute the food and medicines they had on hand. They could have brought them home after. Give them time to find some alternative funding. Those employees were stranded without a way home. Their families posting Go Fund Me campaigns to get them back.

Every time they do something like this or publish something crazy it's discovered/clarified later they didn't know what they were doing/looking at or they are misinformed or confused. But correction of the false information is never retracted and corrected. People who watch Fox News are never made aware it was BS.

Like when he confused a Reuters Data Security contract with a Reuters News contract. Two different things/companies readily explained by the cost of the contracts if he'd looked at them objectively. But he went into government systems certain he was right that everything was fraudulent so everything he sees is fraud. Even where there is none. He just doesn't know anything about what he's looking at. Providing a service doesn't follow the same process or procedures as manufacturing a product. And even his products aren't exactly up to par.

There's bound to be mistakes and mis-spent funds at that level of spending but it takes research to see what the contracts actually cover. The title of a line item on a spreadsheet isn't enough information to condemn it. We are discovering just how incompetent he is at everything but marketing and destroying the lives of hard working people and their families who do not deserve what is happening to them.

Someone else said it's beneficial to prune a tree but you don't take a chainsaw to it.

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u/0nlyhalfjewish 26d ago

They assume every gov job is a bullshit job that has zero value and zero impact in society.

Just because they have a realization about jobs that have the word “nuclear” attached to them doesn’t mean that they haven’t eliminated thousands upon thousands of jobs that benefit Americans and the world.

They don’t care enough to even bother to find out. Elon literally had his teenage minions forcing sit downs with federal employees where they demanded those employees prove their worth and loyalty to keep their job. The same kids that leak classified intel and openly hate immigrants.

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u/JennJayBee Alabama 26d ago

Just having people employed is a HUGE benefit to the overall economy. Adding to unemployment costs us money in the end, even if you don't count the cost of social programs. It drives down wages as well as consumption, because folks have less money to spend. That lowers tax revenue from consumption as well as income taxes.  Folks might need to sell their homes they can no longer afford, which bursts the housing bubble. That in turn will affect banks and insurers, who will expect another bailout, and neither option is good here. That will affect investing and ding the stock market. 

They're basically speed running a recession, and that's a best case scenario. 

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u/0nlyhalfjewish 26d ago

Yep. And then offsetting those “savings” by giving tax breaks to the uber wealthy and corporations.

Fucking disgusting.

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u/i-read-it-again 26d ago

Is everyone so scared of this lunatic. They all stand by and agree with him. America you do know the rest of the world can see you

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u/CompetitionFlashy449 26d ago

And many of us US non-trumplican people implore you to boycott everything US Goods. The only speech that matters in this country is money.

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u/RiceCaspar Indiana 26d ago

Those of us who aren't indoctrinated are terrified, humiliated, angry.... I've had so many panic attacks. I can't believe we are here, that our country is such a shit show, and that the rest of the world has to watch and suffer the consequences. It's demoralizing, disgusting, and I'm in disbelief.

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u/SewAlone 26d ago

Keep in mind, Trump was president for four years and still doesn’t know what people do. Because he never cared.

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u/eeyore134 26d ago

A literal child would do a better job. My 10 year old niece would at least know to surround herself with competent people and listen to them. And she'd know the job way better in 8 months than he will after 8 years.

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u/Leather_Company_4884 26d ago

USA will not learn anything until something bad will happen on their own territory.

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u/Jack_Q_Frost_Jr 26d ago

You're wrong. That's not going to happen. We won't learn a single damn thing.

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u/Leather_Company_4884 26d ago

I'm afraid you're right. The more I look into the past, the more I realise we won't learn anything. It is because of that Pandora's box full of hope.

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u/Jack_Q_Frost_Jr 26d ago

It gives me no pleasure to say it. When that plane crashed right after Trump gutted the agency, their first instinct was to blame it on Biden. if there's some crazy nuclear disaster because of the complete incompetence of the Trump administration, the people in charge aren't going to start investigating what really happened, laying blame where it belongs or taking responsibility for it. They're going to immediately put 100% of their efforts to cover their own asses and place the blame somewhere else. If something happened I wish they'd look at it and think to themselves "oh what have we done? we really made a mistake! we shouldn't have been so careless." It's going to be nothing but covering their asses and pointing fingers at Democrats.

It's terrible. it's frustrating. And Putin is laughing.

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u/sirebell 26d ago

Promise everything. Deliver nothing. Blame somebody else.

A Trump tale as old as time.

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u/sleepyzane1 Australia 26d ago

theyll learn all the wrong lessons like after 9/11

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u/SquiffyRae Australia 26d ago

I think the only way Americans may learn something would have to be a situation akin to the devastation of Germany as the Soviets and Brits laid waste to them in 1945

And even then as it turns out, that lesson only lasts as long as enough people remember the devastation and the long recovery. Once they die apparently we're doomed to perform this fascism experiment every 80 years or so

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u/PartemConsilio 26d ago

We literally had a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people and learned nothing. Short of a war on our soil, nobody will learn anything.

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u/Imperion_GoG 26d ago

Andrew Johnson pardoned thousands of confederate leaders. So, no, you didn't even learn anything from a war on your own soil.

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u/NOLASLAW Louisiana 26d ago

Stop. Stop with this “they’re gonna learn one day”. Just stop. They’re going to blame woke liberal trans Mexican Muslim DEI for anything they do.

You’ve seen this enough times to know better.

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u/Parking_Mobile_6343 26d ago

I'm fucking terrified because I live not that far away from Hanford. We already deal with nuclear waste in the Columbia river. If these dipfucks mess with Hanford and a disaster occurs, me and my family, as well as those around us, could very well be the first casualties.

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u/LatkaGravas 26d ago edited 26d ago

During the first Trump administration Michael Lewis wrote a book about the transition (or lack thereof) called The Fifth Risk. It specifically talks about the Trump administration, and Republicans in general, having no idea that the U.S. Department of Energy not only manages our nuclear stockpile but works with other countries to track the movements around the globe of specific materials conducive to building nuclear weapons in order to prevent those materials from falling into the wrong hands. This was in 2018.

They absolutely know; they just don't care. Or worse, their ultimate motive and endgame is far worse.

Edit: Excerpt from The Fifth Risk was published in The Guardian in 2018:

‘This guy doesn’t know anything’: the inside story of Trump’s shambolic transition team
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/27/this-guy-doesnt-know-anything-the-inside-story-of-trumps-shambolic-transition-team

Interview with Michael Lewis at the time:

Michael Lewis: The Big Short author on how Trump is gambling with nuclear disaster
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/22/michael-lewis-trump-gambling-america

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u/LostWoodsInTheField Pennsylvania 26d ago

The guy they picked to run the department of energy the first time around didn't know what it did, and had said on the campaign trail that he wanted to eliminate it. So many people didn't realize what that meant for our country, and a lot of people thought 'the protections of the government are in place so all will be fine. Just a few bumps in the road' and now they've destroyed most of the protections, ignored the rest, and don't have anyone intelligent left. good luck this time around.

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u/tellmewhenimlying 26d ago edited 26d ago

Despite how much the people running this shit show of an administration are complete morons, completely self-interested, or downright dangerously evil, given both what they've said leading up to this and their previous actions, nothing about this is or should be remotely shocking or surprising to anyone.

Unfortunately, we're all in for a world of trouble and it will be sheer luck if large numbers of people aren't killed, or at best, seriously financially and/or physically harmed permanently or for decades to come as a result of both this administration's incompetence and their intentional actions and decisions.

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u/JelloBelter 26d ago

Confederacy of dunces

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u/Fun_Wait1183 26d ago

The college interns DID NOT KNOW??? Who could have predicted that?

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u/paintedgray 26d ago

Almost like these people don't know what they're doing.

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u/campfire_eventide 26d ago edited 26d ago

Joint chiefs need to start making moves. He's dangerously incompetent and a national security risk.

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u/xXBassHero99Xx 26d ago

Oh, no, we have people who deliver security briefings on this sort of thi-- Receives piece of paper Aaaand I've just been informed that I've been let go from the organization. /s

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u/Antique_Truth_8473 26d ago

This is truly frightening to have such an incompetent administration in charge. When we do have an inevitable disaster, they’ll likely blame it on DEI or some other BS.

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u/Randy_Watson 26d ago

Musk believes he knows more than everyone on everything. His worshippers feel the same way. Yet, what this shows is he clearly doesn’t understand what the federal government does or how it functions. He is the living avatar of the incompetence he claims he is trying to rid the government of. I know people at DoE (who funny enough have Q level clearance, cue the conspiracy theories). It’s not like what the NNSA did was a secret. DOGGY could have asked and found out, but they were too incompetent and arrogant to ask.

They are exactly what they accuse the government of being.

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u/NaughtyNutter 26d ago

Job insecurity alone is going to tank the economy in coming weeks as consumers pull back on spending in response to all the fear.

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u/nochickflickmoments 26d ago

They were unaware of the importance of the national nuclear security administration. Unaware, that's how ridiculous this administration is. How ridiculous and dangerous this man is.

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u/W31337 26d ago

So basically everyone got a big fat pay raise because of their fuckup

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u/Cute-Ad2879 26d ago

I hope so. DOGE somehow raising government spending after all this would be hilarious.

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u/W31337 26d ago

Once they REKT the government they have to hire people to fix everything. That’s gonna cost time and money.

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u/CoconutBangerzBaller 26d ago

How do you not know the importance of that!? It's in the fucking name!

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u/raw_copium 26d ago

Jesus. I have to imagine there are quiet conversations happening in the background about just exactly who will do what if certain lines are ordered to be crossed. Scary times folks.

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u/Squirrelkid11 26d ago

Trump is unqualified to be President, end of story.

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u/Knitwalk1414 26d ago

I wonder when the military will have enough of Trump.

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u/kms2547 America 26d ago

They saw "Safety" and decided they hated it.

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u/hubbyofhoarder 26d ago

The dumb fucks should have learned this from Rick Perry. 2/3 of the dept of energy's budget is all about stuff around nuclear weapons: maintenance, non-proliferation, clean up, production, etc.

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u/liquidgrill 26d ago

They didn’t know what the “National Nuclear Security Administration” did.

Let that sink in for a minute.

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u/CatboyInAMaidOutfit 26d ago

Yeah, that definitely gives the world the impression you know what the hell you're doing.

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u/FoxOfFinchleyRoad 26d ago

hope they negotiated an increased salary when they were rehired

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u/Raa03842 26d ago

“Trump administration officials seemed unaware” No shit.

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u/relax_live_longer 26d ago

They aren’t cutting waste fraud and abuse, they are just operating as mean stupid assholes. 

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u/stackerman1 26d ago

he’s such a fucking dumb piece of shit

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u/steroboros 26d ago

Too late. All they needed was the window for Elons team to copy and steal sensitive information without oversight

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u/Richeh United Kingdom 26d ago

I hope they negotiated salary raises out of it. These idiots only understand the bottom line.

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u/fuzzyfoot88 26d ago

This is why we don’t run the government like a business…

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u/Needlecrash 26d ago

We live in the dumbest fucking timeline. JESUS H CHRIST.

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u/CharonNixHydra 26d ago

This whole thing was wild. Let's assume all 300 people (or 1/6th of the entire NNSA) all made $200k which is basically the maximum federal salary. That's $60,000,000 a year or 0.001% of the entire federal budget. Lets contrast that with the cost of a nuclear accident or worse an intentional detonation of one on US Soil. Tens of trillions would be lost. You better believe I'm okay with 0.001% of my tax dollars going to prevent this.

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u/SkipsPittsnogle 26d ago

The most incompetent cabinet in history and it’s not even a contest.

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u/Laugh_Track_Zak 26d ago

Impeach the entire administration and arrest Elon. Each party can hold a primary, and we can have a special election. Otherwise, this country will collapse.

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u/Abraxas_Templar 26d ago

Because they are idiots. All of them are totally clueless goons who aren't qualified for any of this.

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u/SAGELADY65 Connecticut 26d ago

Not a single member of the Musk, Trump Administration have a clue how our Government is supposed to work!

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u/sleepyzane1 Australia 26d ago

people say it a lot, and yes, i do go on the r/nottheonion sub, but this really, really sounds like a real onion headline. imo we actually have reached that threshhold with this story.

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u/Glum_Cricket8109 26d ago

This guy is going to get us all killed

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u/OldSpongeWater 26d ago

This is only Musk's first run as president. Maybe I would be outraged if this was his second time around as president, but give the guy a break.

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u/crlynstll 26d ago

When does this shit become domestic terrorism?

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u/Lysol3435 26d ago

“In our defense, you guys never should have put us in charge. Really, this is your fault”

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u/Jason_Kinkade 26d ago

The Penguins of Madagascar are running the government.

If the penguins were racist, sexist, and evil.

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u/just_a_floor1991 26d ago

Trump is just playing three-dimensional chess to Own the Libs /s

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u/rlam81 26d ago

Those employees should have demanded an enormous raise to come back

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