Thursday, March 06, 2025

Yea Whoopi!, return of Oasis, Mehdi Yarrahi and look who needs career rehab

First, Branson on the Potomac.  The latest on the Kennedy Center is via Greg Evans (DEADLINE):


The Kennedy Center just lost another patron. Whoopi Goldberg announced on The View today that she no longer will attend Kennedy Center performances in light of the Donald Trump board takeover that has prompted a raft of changes at the venue including firings and show cancellations.

During today’s “Hot Topics” segment of the ABC daytime talk show, Goldberg and the rest of the panel were discussing Wednesday’s announcement by Hamilton producers Jeffrey Seller and Lin-Manuel Miranda that they have scotched a planned 2026 Kennedy Center engagement of Miranda’s smash musical. The decision, they said, was a response to the “recent purge by the Trump administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center.”   


Good for Whoopi.  And I've been using "Branson on the Potomac" to describe Chump's trashy idea of classy entertainment.  A lot of e-mails on that.  The first time I used it, I know I credited it to C.I.  I must have stopped doing that because now I'm getting e-mails congratuating me on it.  I'm merely repeating the great descriptive phrase that C.I. came up with.  


Now let's go to Oasis.  Gil Kaufman (BILLBOARD) reports:

There are a few things you can count on from former and once-again Oasis singer Liam Gallagher: a sneering deliver and jokes. So many jokes. Just 120 days until the July 4 kick-off of one of the most anticipated rock reunions in ages, Gallagher hopped on X on Wednesday (March 5) to finally reveal who will join him and Oasis co-founder guitarist/songwriter/lyricist and occasional singer Noel Gallagher on this year's get-back swing.

"Here we have it Peppa pig on drums Bert n Ernie on lead guitar n bass finger bobs on keyboard," Gallagher tweeted about the child-friendly backing band - including beloved 1970s U.K. children's program Fingerbobs in the mix - that he joked would be backing the brothers up. He added, "obv me n Rkid [his nickname for Noel] hope that clears everything up can't wait to see you all who's says RnR is dead."

The not-news announcement elicited some equally jokey responses from fans, with one asking, "Can we get Kermit?," about B&E's Sesame Street pal. Nope. "Drug dealer," Liam snapped back. The news was better for the frog's longtime lover, Miss Piggy, who Gallagher said would be serving as "tour manager," but not so for SpongeBob Squarepants, who he noted is "back on drugs unreliable."


It's hard to remember sometimes but Oasis was a really great 90s group.  They came out right after Kurt Cobain died.  They were big for a year in England before they broke big over here.  "Wonderwall," "Champagne Supernova" and especially "Don't Look Back In Anger" were great recordings.  I wish the band would do this tour, go into the studio, do another tour, go into the studio . . .  They were a real rock band and they have been strongly missed. 

 
Mehdi Yarrahi, an Iranian singer and musician known for his song encouraging women to remove their hijabs, was lashed 74 times as part of his punishment for supporting the protests that swept the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The punishment was “fully and completely implemented,” his attorney, Zahra Minoui, said in a post on X. Yarrahi, 42, was arrested in August 2023 and sentenced by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to two years and eight months in prison, as well as 74 floggings. He eventually served one year of his sentence and was fined, alongside the lashing.

In some countries you are forced to wear a hijab.  Do what you want but I really don't get why, in a country where you don't have to wear it, that you feel the need to wear it as opposed to taking a stand that could actually help other women.  Again, do what you want.  But people -- men and women -- are being attacked and harmed fighting for women to have the right to decided for themselves whether or not to wear a hijab.
 

I support Mehdi Yarrahi and applaud him.  He did a brave thing and tried to help women.  WIKIPEDIA notes:

Mehdi Yarrahi (Persian: مهدی یراحی, born 14 November 1981 in Ahvaz) is an Iranian singer, musician, and activist living in Tehran. He began his professional career in 2010. At times, he has been banned from performing in public by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting due to the politically sensitive content of his songs and protests.[1][2]

On August 25, 2023, Mehdi Yarrahi released his new protest song, Roosarito. The song supports women who, by joining the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, remove their headscarves in defiance of Iran's compulsory hijab laws.[3] Following the release, Tehran's prosecutor ordered Yarrahi's arrest on charges related to the publication of Roosarito.[4]

On December 28, 2024, after serving a one-year prison sentence, Mehdi Yarrahi was released. However, his sentence of 74 lashes remained in effect but was suspended on bail of 1.5 billion tomans and remained under review.[3] In a video published on his personal YouTube channel on February 28, 2025, Yarrahi declared his readiness to receive the punishment, defended women's civil liberties in the arts, and criticized gender-based favoritism in Iran’s music industry. On March 5, 2025, his sentence of 74 lashes was carried out.[5][4]


From the totalitarian Iranian government to totalitarian Carrie Underwood.  The music career's dried up -- not a good time to be a female country artist -- so Carrie Underwood's running back to TV.  No, she's not trying to act again.  Even she must realize how horrible she was in THE SOUND OF MUSIC.  She's crawling back to AMERICAN IDOL and trying to pretend like it's the thing to do.  Isn't that the show Katy Perry ran to when her music career was over?  And, no, it didn't revive her music career.   This won't revive Carrie's.  She has no pop career to speak of anymore and the last time she -- she solo -- had a top ten country hit was 2018.  Again, pop career is over and barring a shake up in country music for women, her country music career is over as well.  She's kind of exhausted her appeal.  


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Thursday, March 6, 2025.  Chump and his steady Alien Musk want to rip the hard earned dollars out of the hands of American workers and give them over to billionaires. 


Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow gave an overview of the first six weeks in Chump Land.



Emily Prescott (KANSAS CITY STAR) reports, "In a significant workforce reduction initiative, approximately 30,000 federal employees have received termination notices from Trump administration officials. Among the affected agencies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has seen the termination of 4,200 probationary employees. A laid off USDA employee recently addressed President Donald Trump in a viral message online, expressing disappointment over being terminated for alleged performance issues."  And it's happening all around the country which is why, see Mike's "," the GOP has decided no more townhalls.  Though they can't take the heat they are determined to hide in their DC kitchen. 


With Convicted Felon Donald Chump in the White House, the whole country suffers.  That's even true of members of the administration.  For example? 


Last Friday morning, former US Senator Marco Rubio woke up with the possibility of a political future.  That same afternoon, it all came crashing down in the Oval Office as he realized he was working with a moron but he lacked the guts to publicly break from Chump.  With each day that passed, the Secretary of State became more and more of a has-been on his way to The Land of Forgotten.  Tuesday night just drove that reality home as Chump spoke to the nation and mocked Marco.  


President Donald Trump made what seemed to be a joke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his address to Congress, but many observers interpreted it differently.

"Good luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong. No, Marco has been amazing and he's going to do a great job. Think of it. He got 100 votes (...) And I'm either very, very happy about that or I'm very concerned about it. But he's already proven - I mean he's a great gentleman, he's respected by everybody and we appreciate you voting for Marco. He's going to do a fantastic job," Trump said during a passage of his speech.

Trump's message was received with laughter by Republicans in the chamber, but others focused on Rubio's expression, claiming it mostly showed concern.


William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) notes Marco's dour and sour puss as well.  He turns 54 in May and his political career has pretty much ended.  Do we get how sad that is?   -- as Lou Grant tells Mary Richards In season one, episode twenty-four  of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW "The 45-Year-Old Man," Lou Grant (Ed Asner) tells Mary Richards (MTM), "I'm forty-five years old. If I were in politics, they'd call me 'the kid'." 

Yet, although Marco's not even 54 yet, it appears his political career is over, that it ends as a member of a corrupt and ignorant administration. 

An administration that's taking a nose dive.  Brad Reed (RAW STORY) notes:


Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce, is issuing a red alert about the trade wars sparked by President Donald Trump in the last day.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wilson warned that Trump's tariffs against Canada and Mexico could be putting the global economy on the path to an economic depression that rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"Our deep concern is that this could be the start of a downward spiral that puts us in 1930s trade-war territory," he said.
In an interview with the Journal, Wilson said that at the moment the chances of such a catastrophic decision were a "coin flip" and said that the determining factor in whether it would happen would be "whether the U.S. administration is willing to rethink the utility of tariffs."


The Trump put is done. The stock market has erased all of its meteoric gains notched since Election Day.

Hopes for deregulation, tax cuts, and other fiscal stimulus from President Donald Trump have been replaced by fears that his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China will ignite a full-blown trade war. That outcome would most certainly hurt consumers and corporate profits—and revive the economic threat of inflation.

That’s why Wall Street is suddenly worried again, instead of excited about Republicans controlling the White House and Congress. There is no sign of the so-called Trump put—the expectation that he will do what he can to keep the stock market happy.

Instead, Tuesday offered a broad-based, though volatile, selloff after Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico went into effect.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all ended Tuesday’s trading session in the red. The Nasdaq was up more than 1% at one point Tuesday before giving up all its gains, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed 1.6% and 1.2% lower, respectively.

Investors remained skittish Wednesday following Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Stocks opened with only modest gains.


He's destroying the country.  As Senator Elizabeth Warren notes, that is the plan -- to destroy the country for working Americans and to take all their hard earned money and turn it over to billionaires:

Senator Warren joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation ahead of President Trump’s joint address to Congress

Warren: “The whole Republican plan fits on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose.” 

Washington, D.C. – At a press conference today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation in delivering remarks on Trump’s agenda to benefit billionaires while hurting working people ahead of Trump’s Joint Address to Congress.

Senator Warren called the first six weeks of the new administration a “sandstorm of chaos” meant to distract from President Trump’s goal of jamming through trillions in tax cuts to billionaires at the expense of health care, Social Security, and programs that benefit working people.  

Senator Warren was joined by her guest Doug Kowalewski, a former National Science Foundation employee from Wellesley who, after six years of service, was fired unexpectedly in Elon Musk’s and the Department of Government Efficiency’s gutting of the federal workforce. Doug shared his story at Senator Warren’s recent town hall in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Transcript: Press Conference with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation
U.S. Senate
March 4, 2025

Senator Elizabeth Warren: We are all here today as the federal representatives of the seven million people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And we stand proudly with the Mayor of Boston, who has been “invited” – I think that’s still a word – she has been invited by the Republicans to come and defend Boston and to defend the values that we fight for every day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So we want to be here, in part, to talk about what this fight is about.   

Over the last six weeks, Donald Trump has created a sandstorm of chaos to try to distract us from his real agenda: Tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by cuts to health care and Social Security. These are programs that mommas and daddies and babies and seniors rely on every single day.

Trump and his unelected co-president Elon Musk are dismantling our government, piece by piece, so that it works better for those same billionaires and worse for everyone else. The whole Republican plan fits on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose. 

Trump promised, you may remember, to lower costs “on day one.” Instead, he and co-President Musk have tried to fire the financial cops that keep Americans from getting cheated. They have slashed funding that supports research for cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s. And they have fired thousands of hardworking public servants, including the people who keep us safe when we fly on airplanes, the people who make sure that nuclear materials are safely stored, and people who inspect our food.

One of those hardworking public servants is Doug. Up until two weeks ago, Doug worked at the National Science Foundation — until out of nowhere, he was fired along with over one hundred of his colleagues. And I’ve invited Doug here to share his story. Doug, come on over. 

Doug Kowalewski, Senator Warren’s Guest for Trump’s Joint Address to Congress: So, after six years of service at the National Science Foundation, I was fired two weeks ago from today. And me, along with 167 of my colleagues were called into a Zoom meeting to get a mass termination firing with no cause. And this doesn’t just impact me — this impacts all of Massachusetts. A limited workforce at NSF or NST or NIH jeopardizes the billions of federal investments that directly fund our top-notch research and researchers in Massachusetts and powers our local economy.

So, I’m scared for our country. Millions of Americans who have dedicated their lives and dedicated their careers to this country are suffering because of unelected billionaires. I’m here with Senator Warren to fight back against these illegal terminations and to stand up for hardworking civil servants. Thank you. 

Senator Warren: Thank you very much, Doug. And I appreciate Doug being here. I just want to say, this is what happens when you go to town halls. I had a town hall in Framingham a week ago and Doug stood up and told his story, as have lots of other people in Massachusetts. 

I would say the biggest question at that town hall is: What can we do? And Doug is living proof of what we can do. We can tell our stories because they matter. We build a grassroots movement across this story by not using big words and abstract terms, but by telling the story person by person by person about what kind of work you do and what it means when you just get called in and told, “You’re fired,” because it fits in someone else’s political agendas, so thank you for being here, Doug. I appreciate it.   

Alright, I just want to say: Doug is standing up, he’s pushing back and that’s what we’ve all got to do. 

###




Here’s the story: last month hackers looted Ethereum coins worth $1.5 billion from Bybit, a Dubai-based crypto exchange — apparently the most money anyone has ever stolen in a single caper. The FBI believes that the North Korean regime was behind the hack. Most of the coins have already been laundered into Bitcoin, and will eventually be turned into real money that will be used to sustain Kim Jong Un’s brutal dictatorship.

It’s quite a story, yet it has only recently begun to get major coverage. The likeliest explanation of this lag is that crypto-related fraud and theft is so rife that reporters and editors have grown blasé.

But small investors continue to lose large sums in crypto scams, like “rug-pulls.” And the biggest rug-pull yet is underway: Donald Trump’s plan for a “strategic crypto reserve.”

What’s a rug-pull? A textbook example just happened in Argentina, where Javier Milei, the president, touted a new cryptocurrency called $Libra. The currency’s price soared as thousands of small players bought in, while insiders sold their holdings for huge profits. Then the price collapsed, leaving small players owning worthless bits of code.

Does this sound familiar? It should: the $Trump coin, introduced with great fanfare by Trump in January, attracted billions in dollars from MAGA fans, then quickly lost more than 80 percent of its value. The great bulk of $Trump coins were initially bought by a handful of “whales,” large investors, although it’s not clear whether their intent was to scam small buyers or simply to bribe the president.

While both Milei and Donald Trump deny that they personally profited from the rug-pulls they enabled, I seriously doubt that anyone believes them. And if Trump manages to establish a federal “strategic crypto reserve,” paid for by US tax dollars, the scams associated with $Libra and $Trump will look like chump change.



We're being robbed.  And that's why Chump is seeing the country turn on him so quickly and his honeymoon ended before he even got in all the slap and tickle he wanted with Alien Musk. Alex Kirshner (SLATE) observes the cratering of Chump's  mастера секса Alien Musk:



Musk has garnered lots of attention for this power move. Some is positive. Most is not. Tesla, his biggest company, has become the subject of widespread boycotting calls by his and Trump’s opponents. There are frequent protests outside of Tesla showrooms. Barely a day passes without the viral egging of a Cybertruck. Tesla owners are getting international press attention for flipping their cars at a loss just to get rid of them. “I’m selling the Nazi mobile,” one dissatisfied driver says. The social internet might create an outsized impression of how common those acts of resistance are, but they still seem at least reflective of a shift. Public approval of Musk’s government obliteration really is low, and disapproval of Tesla itself is higher than ever.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock price is declining rapidly. Musk’s largest company lost 24 percent of its value in February. It was the stock’s second worst month ever, and then it fell another 3 percent on Monday, the first trading day of March. What a coincidence it would be if none of that had anything to do with the ever-growing, controversial public persona of its very famous chief executive. Big left-of-center social media accounts are celebrating their work: “Congrats, everyone—the Elon boycott is working!” a Bluesky post from a mysterious account with 800,000 followers reads.



Danielle Antosz (MONEYWISE) reports on how any association with the Alien can harm business:

Public perception of the automaker and its billionaire owner seem to be at an all-time low. One person even claims to have lost $70,000 in business contracts because customers didn't like that he drives a Tesla Cybertruck.

"I have a dilemma. I started to lose customers because I have [a] Cybertruck," Yoni Menaker wrote in what appears to be a now-deleted Facebook post, as cited by Torque News. "I got some bad reviews, and I am not sure what to do."

Menaker added he loves the vehicle and "it's the best truck" he's ever had.

The name Yoni Menaker is attached to a company called Blue Angels Roofing, which operates in Alabama and Georgia. A couple of negative online reviews scornfully mentioned the company's use of a Cybertruck.

Blue Angels Roofing isn't alone. A medical spa owner in Massachusetts told NBC Boston in February he's faced harassment and client cancellations after purchasing a gold-wrapped Cybertruck to promote his business.

It's not just small business owners facing backlash. Tesla's stock slide from mid-December to late February wiped out more than $650 billion in market value, according to a Barron's report.

While EV sales in the U.S. have grown in volume — up 7.3% in 2024 — Tesla's sales fell more than any other manufacturer, according to Cox Automotive. Sales figures in other regions, including Europe and China, have also trended downward.



At MOTHER JONES, Monika Bauerlein has an interesting call to arms worth reading.  It contains some strong observations.  It also contradicts itself.  

She thinks she understands Chump.  That's so cute.  She doesn't.  I don't.  Both of us can talk to where he's coming from but she actually thinks she's got some skill -- that she shares with Clara -- on being able to know what's important and what's not and when to ignore Chump's statements and when not to.

She doesn't.

And I say that because it's true and it also let's me answer a question for people writing to the public e-mail account.  I have not forgotten _____.  I'm just not interested in highlighting him.  He also knew what Chump was going to do and when Chump was serious and blah blah blah

When Chump started his attacks on Canada, we called him out.  We ended up compling all the countries he'd verbally lashed out at.  And while we were doing that a YOUTUBER wanted the world to know tht was just Chump bluster and those mentioning it were wasting time.

I shrugged as someone who emphasized international relations for my undergraduate and graduate work (along with campaign politics).  There were so many ways that could be wrong -- that person could be wrong.  

But we don't all have to agree.  And though he was wrong on that, he was right on other things so I continued to highlight him until I got the angry e-mail about how he had covered this and Chump wasn't going to do anything on this topic and this was a distraction and I needed to apply my time better.

That's when we were done with him.

As time has demonstrated, those of us educated in international relations were right to raise flags immediately.  But I could have been wrong  Wouldn't be the first time.

The difference is: I don't ask anyone for money.  Daily content here includes one piece of writing a day by me.  Except for when I went into my diabetic coma, I have had something new that I wrote (most likely dictated) up here every day for over 20 years.  And never charged a cent.  Never begged for a cent.

So I don't really see where you can write an angry e-mail to me telling me that I'm wasting people's time and that I'm stupid because as soon as Chump's sworn in, he's going to stop trashing other countries and he's going to this and to that.

At any rate, that YOUTUBER is banned here by me.  He could get honest.  I don't mean apologize to me.  I do mean he could say on a new segment, "Hey, when I told all of you to ignore the comments Chump was making about other countries and the Panama Canal and all the rest, I was wrong.  It wasn't just distraction.  It was the new foreign policy for the US under Chump."

There are so many things each day that warrant and deserve coverage.

I can't do it all and don't pretend to.  I've noted that often on Mondays when the snapshot includes a statement about how too much happened over the weekend.

So I'm picking and choosing.  (And I'm aware that the community sites pick up many topics and I can sometimes rule a topic because I know someone else in the community is already covering it.) 

And I'm not above criticism -- though you'll never be able to criticize me more harshly than I already do.  But when I'm writing garbage here about how we need to make Jon Stewart our party's presidential nominee in 2028?  When I'm doing that kind of political masturbation?  Then I really need to be slammed.

However, I'm not among the four YOUTUBERS who did that.  (And, yes, the one banned was one of the four.)  That is wasting time.  And they didn't even know Jon's stances.  Which is why last month they were attacking him.  Jon's a comedian and a good one.  He goes for the laugh.  He's also overly concerned about being seen as fair.  

Monika's piece is worth reading but it's also worth noting that she doesn't have a crystal ball and it's really not for her to say what's important and what's not.  She can say that for herself -- I can say that for myself -- but if you're gut's telling you something different, you should go with your gut.  Do a YOUTUBE video, write a post, whatever.  If you think something important is taking place that needs attention -- much more than it's getting -- that's what you can do and should do.

Last night, Chris Hayes gave us all a scorecard on DOGE.




Kyle Schutt, a software engineer embedded at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is making $195,200—the maximum salary allowed for a federal employee. Nate Cavanaugh, a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur playing a leading role in DOGE's GSA restructuring efforts, is earning $120,500.

These revelations, uncovered by WIRED, stand in direct contrast to Musk's previous statements. Last November, as he and Vivek Ramaswamy recruited for DOGE, Musk insisted that working for the agency would be "tedious" and compensated at zero dollars.

However, the investigation found that DOGE's budget has ballooned to $40 million, and its recruitment page now openly discusses "full-time, salaried positions" for engineers and other specialists.

"It does seem worth understanding what these employees are being paid," Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan told WIRED. "Especially if they are being paid significantly more than technologists who have been fired, given that many of the DOGE staff have less relevant experience."


As Chris Hayes noted on MSNBC last night, there is no transparency.  They don't even issue corrections.  They just wait until they hope people aren't looking and then they remove one of their lies from their lists of claims.

There is no transparency and there is no accountability.  There is Alien Musk joking that sometimes mistakes will be made.  Thousands of Americans are out of their jobs and that's the closet to accountability Alien's going to offer: Woops!

Millions and millions of Americans are at risk because of these firings and "Woopsie" and a bad joke is all we're going to get in the form of an apology or an acknowledgement.

It doesn't matter to Alien Musk.

He's not an American.  Canada's got a move currently to strip him of his Canadian citizenship but even if they did?  He could still go home to South Africa.  The racist doesn't want to do that because the racist system of apartheid that he was raised under and benefited from no longer exists in South Africa.  

But he can go elsewhere.

He's not an American.  He didn't grow up here, he didn't bother to learn about the country and he lies daily to the citizens of this country.  

He doesn't care what happens to the American people.  He does care about stealing as many of our tax dollars as he can.

Erik De La Garza  (RAW STORY) notes:

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy flatly rejected the idea that Elon Musk’s Starlink is the key to fixing FAA’s struggling air traffic control system.

Duffy delivered the slap down of the tech billionaire's satellite internet network while speaking to Fox News on Tuesday about air traffic control shortages and other issues plaguing the agency following a series of deadly aviation disasters in the opening weeks of 2025.


All Alien wants is our tax dollars.  He's a welfare queen who has lived off our tax dollars and the tax dollars of citizens of other countries.  That's 'his' wealth.  


Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s plans to fire 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), seriously risking the medical care and benefits that veterans have earned and deserve.More than 25 percent of VA’s workforce are veterans themselves.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are escalating their full-scale, no-holds-barred assault on veterans–and putting the health care and benefits they have earned in grave danger. It’s infuriating that two billionaires think they can fire tens of thousands of people responsible for administering the services and care that over nine million veterans across the country count on. It’s flat-out immoral and a breach of the sacred commitment we make to our veterans to take care of them when they return home.

“Just yesterday, I spoke with a disabled veteran who worked at the Seattle VA helping homeless veterans. He told me how devastating it was when, without warning, without cause, and without explanation, he was suddenly terminated from a role that meant everything to him and was cast aside by the very system he had fought in combat to defend. Now, there will be thousands more stories like his and millions more veterans who will pay the price. Trump’s own attorney has said that this administration thinks veterans they laid off for NO REASON may not be ‘fit to have a job at this moment’ —it’s an astounding level of contempt for our veterans that’s reflected throughout this administration’s thoughtless mass firings.

“These arbitrary mass layoffs, at the very least, are going to mean longer processing times for disability or education claims veterans are desperately waiting on, and longer wait times for veterans to see a doctor–to say nothing of the serious threat to patient safety or the threat of VA medical centers closing. Make no mistake: this will only empower Elon to privatize VA by breaking it first. The consequences of Trump and Elon’s sheer recklessness will reverberate for generations—in more veterans sick and unable to get their benefits, more veterans out of a job, and fewer men and women willing to sign up to serve a nation that shows it will not keep their promises to them.”

ENDANGERING VETERANS’ ACCESS TO BENEFITS AND CARE—AND PATIENT SAFETY

Firing VA employees will–among much else–likely force veterans to wait longer:

  • To see health care providers;
  • To have their disability claims adjudicated;
  • To have someone to pick up their calls at the Veterans Crisis Line;
  • To have burial and funeral expense reimbursement requests processed;
  • And much more.

A number of staff supporting the Veterans Crisis Line–which provides 24/7, confidential crisis support for veterans and their loved ones–were among those fired by Trump and Musk.

In 2022, Congress also passed the PACT Act, the largest expansion of veterans’ benefits in two decades, which requires a significant influx of resources and staff to deliver the benefits and care under the law. Trump and Musk’s firings–and hiring freeze–badly undercut VA’s ability to process claims under the law. The mass firings and the ongoing hiring freeze, which prohibits new disability claims raters from coming on board, will force the backlog of unprocessed claims to grow above 254,000.

Firing long-time VA researchers also puts clinical trials that veterans are enrolled in at risk and jeopardizes research that could yield critical breakthroughs for veterans.

  • Ongoing VA research is examining treatment options for PTSD and opioid addiction, as well as for cancer that was caused by veterans’ exposure to toxic chemicals, among much else.
  • According to VA, in fiscal year 2024, there were 102 active research sites nationwide, with 3,685 active principal investigators who led 7,278 active funded research projects involving teams of researchers. In addition, VA investigators authored or coauthored 11,732 published research articles.

Recent dangerous directives from VA last week, which they have already begun to walk back, cause more harmful chaos and confusion and also have detrimental impacts on the ability of veterans to receive their care and benefits.

  • VA issued a blanket cancellation last Tuesday of nearly 900 contracts–supporting patient safety efforts like chemical waste disposal and monitoring of hospital air quality, systems providing secure storage of veterans’ private records, clinical recruitment efforts, and more.
  • VA also implemented a decision to reduce purchase card limits to $1–curbing VA medical centers’ ability to purchase supplies and equipment they need to serve veterans or to provide lodging for transplant patients. 

While the Trump administration tries to rehire clinical staff they have already fired and may ultimately walk back the purchase card limits and contract cancellations, it is clear that they are acting before thinking–and the people paying the price are veterans.

BETRAYING VETERANS WITH ZERO JUSTIFICATION

Beyond indiscriminately firing workers who help get veterans the benefits and care they have earned, Trump and Musk have also already indiscriminately fired thousands of veterans who have served our country in uniform. In firing probationary and other federal workers across government, Trump and Musk have fired scores of veterans.

  • Veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce, and the federal government is the largest single employer of veterans in the country.
  • Trump and Musk have already fired nearly 6,000 veterans, by one recent estimate.
  • Federal agencies uniquely work to hire and accommodate veterans with service-related disabilities. Longstanding law requires, for example, that veterans who are disabled or who serve on active duty in the Armed Forces in military campaigns are entitled to preference over others in hiring from a list of eligible, competitive applicants. In 2021, there were 337,000 disabled Veterans serving in the federal government, making up 16% of the federal workforce.

As veterans working at VA in Washington state who were recently laid off through no fault of their own have told Senator Murray:

“I swore an oath to serve our country—first in the U.S. Army and then at the VA—only to be abruptly terminated by the very institution that promised to care for those who have served. My termination isn’t just a personal tragedy; it’s a stark reminder that our federal government is dismantling essential support systems for veterans and vulnerable communities. When cost-cutting means sacrificing dedicated, disabled service members and committed federal employees, it isn’t about efficiency—it’s about eroding the trust and dignity that our nation owes to those who answer the call to serve.” — Raphael Garcia, former Management Analyst for VA, Seattle

“Working at the VA gave me purpose. I understood the struggles veterans faced, whether physical, mental, or emotional. I took pride in being part of something bigger than myself, in continuing to serve even after taking off the uniform… The next chapter in my service led me to working with unhoused Veterans. Limiting roles like mine, means other VA employees will have to take on more and cutting into valuable clinical time directly serving veterans. That’s why it was so devastating when, without warning, without cause, I was terminated. No explanation, no justification just a cold dismissal from a role that meant everything to me. It felt like a betrayal, not just of my dedication but of the values I thought the VA stood for. I had fought through war, through cancer, and through every challenge life had thrown at me only to be cast aside by the very system I had believed in.” — Scott Olson, former Program Support for VA’s Community Housing Program, Seattle

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