Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump Struggling to Rehire Federal Nuke Employees
When cutting fat from an organization, and there is some in every group, one must be careful not to cut away the muscle and bone. Someone should have told President Donald "Neville Chamberlain" Trump and First Lady fElon Musk. As they fire thousands from the federal work force, they have not considered whether the people losing their careers are needed for anything important. For instance, the National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] is in charge of designing, building and overseeing American nuclear weapons. The Trump-Musk administration fired many of them and then, realized it needed them. So, they are going to have their terminations rescinded. The trouble is they have lost access to their government email accounts, and the White House is not sure how to get hold of them.
To be fair, there are about 300 staff in the NNSA and only about 50 were fired if the Energy Department is providing accurate information (a caveat required these days). The nukes are probably as safe today as they were last week. And they probably will never be used. But the word probably in nuclear weapons discussion is not a welcome modifier.
The BBC reported, “A memo sent to NNSA employees on Friday and obtained by NBC News read: "The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel."
"Please work with your supervisors to send this information (once you get it) to people's personal contact emails," the memo added.
If these employees have a brain in their heads, they will extract a pound of flesh to go back. The Trump-Musk-Chamberlain administration needs to be told no. Either they get reinstated with more pay and more time off,or they find private-sector jobs. They probably will not do that, but any employer who makes that big a mistake deserves to pay through the nose to fix it.
A source told CNN they believe these individuals were fired because "no one has taken anytime to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation's national security."
This goes along with the Silicon Valley attitude of "go fast and break things." Being a disruptor there may result in tech breakthroughs (MySpace, AltaVista and WordPerfect notwithstanding), but in government, disruption has immediate effects (almost all negative) on the electorate. Corporations can change their strategies, even their markets, to reach black ink on the bottom line. Governments have to stick to their constitutional functions and their only goal is to implement the policies Congress has funded. In short, people who understand business cannot transfer that knowledge to government because it is a different beast. Taylor Swift is a great entertainer, but one probably does not want her holding the scalpel during brain surgery.
At the beginning of this process, First Lady Musk said that they would make mistakes (promises made, promises kept), but they would act quickly to fix them. This is proof that they do not know how to fix their mistakes. It should be a simple matter to look up personal contact data in the federal database (one knows from firsthand experience that this is easy) and then, contact the employees. An intern could do it in about an hour. Unfortunately, the interns are busy breaking things.
In the nineteenth century, German General von Moltke (there were a few of them then) said men came in four groups: Lazy men who know what they are doing; Active men who know what they are doing; lazy men who do not know what they are doing; and active men who do not know what they are doing. The first make the best leaders, the general said, because they will find the easiest ways to accomplish their goals. The second make great staff because they will get the details right. The third group cause little harm. The active idiots, though, are the ones who cause all the trouble.
Guess who is running America? Hint: not the first three.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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