Republican Stupidity Watch: Nuclear Edition

Republicans in the House and Senate continue to uncritically support the Trump/Musk dismantling of government. They own the unfolding disaster that is the Trump/Musk administration.

Musk and his DOGE team decided that the most efficient way to save money was to fire every “probationary” federal employee. Working their way from department to department, they sent a fusillade of termination emails. 

On Valentine’s Day, they realized they had screwed up, big-time. 

Among the fired employees: essential workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the NNSA. What is the NNSA? The DOGEs didn’t know. NBC explains:

“The NNSA is tasked with designing, building and overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

“The termination notices, which read ‘effective today,’ came within hours of a Russian drone striking the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine. NNSA tracks nuclear risks in Ukraine, including through sensor systems.”

Oops.

Too late, the Trump/Musk DOGE team tried to call back the employees. They had no way to do so. After firing them, the DOGE team locked employees out of their federal email accounts. They had no way to make contact.  

Supervisors started looking for home phone numbers, and making frantic phone calls. Their message: “Your termination is rescinded. Come back to work.” One NNSA nuclear safety specialist told NBC: 

“I will be honest, I intend to keep looking for work. I will go back, but as soon as I find another role, I’ll be leaving.”

Wouldn’t you? 

x x x x x

This is part three of Republican Stupidity Watch. Unfortunately, there are a lot more to come.