The Los Angeles Times has interviewed federal workers who supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election who are now fuming after being fired by X owner Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
"They are just in this shock-and-awe mode, with no concern about all the damage that is being done," said one former federal employee who supported Trump - until he was laid off. Story by @raineytime.bsky.social www.latimes.com/politics/sto ...
-- Stuart Leavenworth (@sleavenworth.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 2:08 PM
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@#3, and from the cited article...
... A laid-off Veterans Affairs Department staffer who only wished to be identified as "Mike," meanwhile said he had "proudly" voted for Trump but then added that "I never would have expected things to go this far... I'm still in shock." ...
Related?
'These Are Human Beings': VA Fires 1,400 More Employees It Considers Nonessential
www.military.com
... The Department of Veterans Affairs fired 1,400 more employees Monday, bringing the total number of dismissals in the department to roughly 2,400 under the Trump administration's effort to slash the size of the federal workforce.
The workers -- more than 3.3% of the department's probationary employees -- were union members considered to have "non-mission critical" positions, according to a VA news release Monday evening. The move follows the firings of nearly 1,000 probationary employees Feb. 14, some of which were walked back later when they were determined to be essential employees.
The announcement drew sharp criticism from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which issued the first major statement since the firings began from a national veterans service organization. The ongoing cuts may disproportionately affect vets, since they make up more than 28% of the VA workforce and account for the same share of the federal workforce.
VFW National Commander Al Lipphardt said fired veterans weren't "brand-new, off-the-street employees," but were those who had served the country for decades in uniform and civil service.
"There are bigger ramifications in firing veterans than just faceless workers being let go. The American people are losing technical expertise, training and security clearances already bought and paid for by taxpayers," Lipphardt said in a statement Monday night. "We're losing people who are genuinely committed to the mission and find a continued sense of purpose in what they do."
VA Secretary Doug Collins described the dismissals as "extraordinarily difficult" but said the savings in salaries and benefits -- an estimated $83 million a year -- would go toward serving veterans, families and survivors. In fiscal 2023, the VA's budget was nearly $304 billion, including mandatory spending such as disability payments and pensions. ...
Related?
VA Research on Cancer, Suicide Prevention, Toxic Exposure at Risk from Federal Hiring Freeze
www.military.com
... Hundreds of Department of Veterans Affairs medical research projects are being threatened by a hiring freeze across the federal government, a pair of top Democratic senators warned in a letter to the department this week.
About 200 research personnel could be cut and an estimated 370 studies and clinical trials could be canceled or suspended in the next 90 days if the freeze isn't lifted, the senators said, "directly impacting up to 10,000 veterans currently participating in research studies."
Studies on cancer treatments, opioid addiction, prosthetics, suicide prevention and toxic exposures are among those at risk, a coalition of research organizations warned in its own letter to Congress last week. ...
@#8 ... Suicide is painless. ...
Johnny Mandel - Suicide Is Painless
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
The Tongue-in-cheek theme song for the very sad tongue-in-cheek comedy about the Korean war -- directed at the Vietnam war -- for both film and TV series. The film was released in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war, and the TV series debuted in 1972, appealing to the growing anti-war crowd, lasted 11 years and was arguably one of the most successful series ever.
...
"People tend to believe the myth that these organizations are bloated with too many lazy people who do nothing, etc."
Trump's Paycheck Protection Program made that myth a reality for the private sector.
From 2020,
Trump Administration Refuses To Disclose Which Businesses Received $500 Billion In Government Bailout
www.huffpost.com
Are these cuts necessary? Considering the way it's being done and communicated, I'd say no.
Meaning the cuts won't be strategic....just cutting to cut.
And that will lead to more problems....and a media devoted to hammering it step by step.
#40 | Posted by eberly
Yes, they are just cutting to cut. This has never been about cost cutting and saving money. That's how it's being marketed, but the truth is this has always been about P2025 & the GOP's desire to drastically reduce the size of the federal govt and to corral what is left of the federal work force under auspices of "the unitary executive" i.e. the president:
Mapping the DOGE Game Plan: New Details on Which Contracts Get Axed
Let's start with my story from last night about the abrupt and reckless cancelation of upwards of a thousand VA contracts totaling roughly $2 billion and covering a huge variety of work VA does, everything from funeral care to doctor recruitment. As I reported last night, VA contract officers were sent an Excel spreadsheet of almost a thousand contracts in the early morning of February 21st, told that all of these contracts should be canceled and that if anyone wanted to make a case to spare individual contracts they had until the end of business that day (February 21st) to make their case. My sources noted that the contract code on all of these contracts was NAICS " 541611, which is "Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services." It's very clear the DOGE people pulled up everything under that label and slated it to be cut. My sources' impressions are that the DOGErs making these decisions read that label as basically, McKinsey/MBA consulting type --------, easy stuff to cut. At VA, most of it wasn't that at all. But they didn't seem to make any attempt to look under the hood at what those contracts were.
@#61 ... Yes, they are just cutting to cut. This has never been about cost cutting and saving money. That's how it's being marketed, but the truth is this has always been about P2025 & the GOP's desire to drastically reduce the size of the federal govt and to corral what is left of the federal work force under auspices of "the unitary executive" i.e. the president: ...
DOGE Is Working on Software That Automates the Firing of Government Workers
www.wired.com
... Operatives working for Elon Musk's DOGE appear to be editing the code of AutoRIF -- software designed by the Defense Department that could assist in mass firings of federal workers, sources tell WIRED. ...
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