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Now this is damned dangerous... [1]
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Date: 2025-02-15
I knew there had to be some part of the Department of Defense that took care of maintaining nuclear weapons. You couldn't think of an agency that was more in charge of national security. But this one is actually under the Department of Energy, called the National Nuclear Security Administration. Their main jobs are:
Manage, upgrade, and test components of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Try to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of others. Provide the Navy with nuclear power plants for ship propulsion.
National security is the excuse Trump makes over and over again for things like tariffs, foreign policy being set by amateurs, and removing impediments to corporations being able to operate without regulations and oversight.
Making sudden changes to the National Nuclear Security Administration is literally a disaster waiting to happen.
But that's what just occurred days ago.
"Officials were given hours to fire hundreds of employees, and workers were shut out of email as termination notices arrived."
Despite having "National Security" in its name, the agency was part of the layoffs of a thousand workers in the Department of Energy.
Days before this officials had to come up with explanations why 300 probationary employees should not be terminated. They were given the option of writing 200 characters to defend the work these employees did.
On Thursday, it didn't matter anyway as employees were told verbally that they've been fired and had to clear out on the spot. They were told that they would get a termination letter, but only some of them did. Then, on Friday, those that were still there were told the firings were on pause.
NNSA officials then tried to reach employees who had been told they were fired but discovered that they didn't have current contact information to do so.
According to reporting by CNN, Department of Energy officials who directed the firing didn't even realize that the sub-agency was in charge of the nuclear weapon stockpile.
The only probationary employees that didn't get the axe were in the Office of Secure Transportation, which moves nuclear weapons around the country.
Another job the NNSA has is keeping track of nuclear materials in the US. Still another job was made clear with the drone attack on the Chernobyl power plant's massive concrete shell, which keeps the radiation and materials from dispersing.
"NNSA maintains sensors in Ukraine to help track nuclear risks weather intentional or non-intentional," a source said.
A Department of Energy spokesman said, "The Energy Department will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence in the development, modernization, and stewardship of America's Atomic weapons enterprise, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology and non-proliferation."
That's hard to match up with the fact that:
"... no one had taken any time to understand what we do and the importance of our work to national security," an anonymous source told CNN.
We already knew about Musk and DOGE's recklessness in directing the firing of employees without any understanding of what they do.
Too many employees are bad. Too many government regulations are bad. Too many scientific grants are bad. Too many medical grants are bad. Subscriptions to news services are bad. 150 year old Social Security recipients are bad.
DOGE and Musk are a danger to national security. So are the knuckleheads that have been put in charge of it, starting with Trump and continuing through JD Vance, Hegseth, Rubio, Gabbard, and Noem.
When they can mistakenly try to shut down an agency that controls nuclear weapons, not understanding what it does, how careful are they going to be with anything else?
Trump just posted, "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law." Nixon said that if a president does it, it is by definition legal. Trump thinks he can not do any wrong. He claimed that time and time again while being prosecuted and convicted. This was a major mistake conducted on his behalf. What he does personally is even worse.
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