Vets – “not fit to have a job”? and Covid update
White House adviser Alena Habba stuck her foot right in it when she was asked about the thousands of people, many of whom are vets, who have lost their jobs in DOGE-led firings.
Habba defended the cuts and said she had no sympathy for the thousands of people who have lost their jobs.
“I really don’t feel sorry for them,” Habba said. “They should get back to work for the American people, like President Trump and this administration.”
A bit tone-deaf there, lady – they just got fired from working for the American people.
“That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means,” she added. “We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.” NBC News
Or, perhaps, they just got fired because they were hired less than two years ago. Or because they just happened to be on some wunderkind’s list of “this office can’t be necessary” positions which can all be eliminated because someone doesn’t understand what they really do. Yeah, we’ve all seen veteran employees who seem to be stuck at a half-pace cadence… but then there are the ones who really try and, and make a difference. Tarring all of them with the same brush? Actually goes beyond tone-deaf.. and straight into some ****-you territory, lady. When did YOU serve?
(Look her up. Check the number of times she has been reprimanded by judges, and her success record. Seems to me SHE is the one “not fit to have a job.”)
And in other vet updates – remember when 8,200 or so service members were thrown out for refusing to get Covid shots? (I am not going down the rabbit hole of whether they were immunizations, effective, made from dead babies, all of that. Not enough room in the column… and perhaps on the whole site.) But the shots were ordered, many refused, and many had to get out due to the refusal. Eventually in 2023, “all is forgiven, we’ll take you back” became the policy and in the intervening time, they have stampeded back into service. Not. 113 returned.
Roughly 650 Marines and Army soldiers who were forced out of the military for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine have so far expressed interest in returning to the force under an executive order from President Donald Trump, officials said this week.
The number represents about 8% of the roughly 8,200 troops who had been discharged.
Trump has argued that the vaccine mandate wrongly pushed troops out and suggested that many would return. In an executive order signed a week after he took office, Trump said that the mandate cost the military “some of our best people” and he vowed to “rehire every patriot who was fired from the military with … backpay.”
Under Trump’s directive, those who were discharged for refusing the vaccine can rejoin and get back pay. Those who voluntarily left to avoid the vaccine also can rejoin, but they must swear that they left the service for that reason and they will not receive back pay.AP News
In 2023 those who left were told they could come back… a whole 113 reenlisted. Obviously the magic words “back pay” are having an impact. But note that the vast preponderance (over 90%!) have moved on… or remember that the same folks who said “screw you” in ’21 are saying “trust us – really” in ’25.
Cynically, it is a truism that whenever you circulate a rumor that layoffs are coming hoping that your deadwood will quit, the real-world result is that your best and brightest jump ship first – leaving you with all your deadwood and fewer studs. Wonder if that is what we will see happen here?
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", COVID-19 vaccine
I respect all veterans for serving our great country, but just because a person is a veteran does not necessarily entitle them to have a job. I have known several veterans over the years who are complete turds and didn’t deserve the job they had. I have people in my own family who I would not hire for a job because they are not deserving. If you are not producing or you are otherwise not worthy of a position, then you don’t deserve that position regardless of who or what you are. Just my two cents.
Different story when one has to put food on the table.
One truly motivated to put food on the table for one’s family will find a way, regardless.
Understood.
But its not the critic that counts; its the man in arena.
I have been the man in the arena.
More than once.
I was not speaking abstractly, but from a position of multiple experiences.
Agreed Green, but if that one who is putting food on the table is loosing their job because they are a turd, then they need to get better at doing their job. If, however, someone is losing their job and is collateral damage, then I too feel sorry for them. There have been many good people who lost jobs over the years to all sorts of circumstances. But what about the good people who lost out on a job or position to a DEI hire, or because they didn’t take the jab or refused to wear the mask? Just saying.
Had a few “vet’rans” at my prior day job who never wanted/did NCO responsibilities but who sure threw their “Army leadership” around gettin’ a “good job” w/o college afterward. Toads.
Yup, those are the guys that even the theoretical E4 Mafia shunned. Or would shun. Have I said too much?
I already said what I said on the earlier posts yesterday, so I won’t go into that again, but my Agency was gutted so badly this week that there is literally no one left in whole job categories left to do the work. No bumping and retreating rights were given like they were supposed to in a RIF and Veterans preference was completely thrown out the window. Unless Congress retroactively approves this as a Budget line item next week, these dummies are going to have to walk this back, but by that point this will end up costing the taxpayers more than the DOGE dummies that caused this claimed to have saved.
One of the last remaining Budget people I work with called me on my personal phone last night freaking out because my job series was completely eliminated and there is no one left that can push some rather complex tasks in our systems in time for Awards within the next two weeks. I told her I’m sorry, but I can’t help her they’ve already locked me out of the software I would need access to in order to accomplish these tasks and it took years of on the job training for me to get proficient in doing this.
I know that just one of these issues will cost the taxpayers 4x my Annual salary in penalties and fines when it does not get completed. And that’s just my area of the US.
My current Acting Administrator has no prior Military or Public Service background so his understanding of what we all do here is minimal to say the least. He got the job because his wife worked under Elon Musk at X up until halfway through January.
Hey QMC I feel for ya I really do – I retired in 2008 one class short of Bachelors Degree paid for it out of pocket then took my GI Bill got the MBA and MS in Performance Improvement. Went to work at Fortune 500 Company before my terminal leave ended. I have been with this company 17 Years in May and my company is extremely WOKE and I have a constant nagging fear that I am the next to go even though I am fairly junior in time with the company compared to my peers. Consistent Top Performer with numerous performance awards but honestly no matter how good I am it doesn’t mean a dang thing to the company nor is my veteran status. Being a veteran is almost a hinderance – don’t kid yourself the corporate world doesn’t give a crap about a veteran. I get your pissed and I would be as well. I wish I had a lead on a decent position I would send your way but I don’t but if something comes up I will post to you if TAH allows. Good Luck my friend I hope something breaks your way and quick.
With avoidant corporate types, they aren’t respectable and don’t tolerate anyone among them who could be. It’s all about posturing and sounding “credible” for them.
So, are you saying your new boss got his job because his wife slept with Elon Musk? That would certainly get it done.
Also, shouldn’t you be looking for a job right now instead of posting shit here? Just saying. Money doesn’t grow on trees unless you are a Democrat with an NGO backed by USAID.
You are not doing a psyop here, right?
Can I take a tiny pick at your DD 214?
Nevermind. No chain of custody.
Don’t worry. I am not accusing you of being a POS. It’s just that over the years, I have become very cynical with all the stolen valor cases with fakers and embellishers.
I see an old guy seating around with a Vietnam veteran hat and don’t fucking know if the dude is fo real or not.
In my opinion, this is the greatest damage Stolen Valor has done to our society, stealing our trust in fellow Americans and destroying our ability to take anything at face value. I want to believe. I really do. But I can’t.
Fuck off. The Admins here know my email and can easily verify what I do.
I never got a chance to meet John personally, but we chatted over emails for years before his passing. He knew my military background and what I do.
You can look through my years of posting here. I am not some far left kook here to commit some psyop. It’s that insane line of thinking that is leading to some of the same mistakes David mentioned and I mentioned in my comment.
No problem. I will fuck myself off.
I will probably need a pic of Alena Habba for that, though. Nah. She is not my type.
Alina.
“my email and can easily verify what I do.”
What kind of email address includes a job description?
I will take that “-1” as an “I have no idea”.
I saw a couple of Vets wearing Vietnam caps and I ask them what year they were there and I get the same answer that they say that they served during that period and I tell them that if Vietnam isn’t on your DD214, your doing a diservice to the men and Women that were there. I catch my friend wearing a Korean war vet cap with the 2 Korean ribbons on the cap, and I say to him that I didn’t know your ship was over there between 1954-1958 and he says that he was in the Navy during the period. I say to him that if those ribbons arn’t are your DD214, thats a problem. Next time I see him, he’s wearing the AGR 1 Cap I bought him awhile ago. He wasn’t aware that whatever you wear isn’t on your DD214, it’s a no no like most likely the 2 other Vets I saw. I just wear my LPH-3,
DD700 2 week Inactive Reserve cap and my NYANG cap.
My dad was in Vietnam and he never wore anything Vietnam related until the day he died even though he retired as a Marine. He was proud of his Marine service and wore a ring and occasionally a jacket. I also had an Uncle that was a pilot in the Navy for five years and dropped bombs on Vietnam but never set foot in the country. He OTOH was blinged out most days.
I think it is fair to say that your experiences at war often determines how, and how often, you want to remember it. When I see those PX vendor hats being worn around town I do tend to think that they are not earned simply because I would never wear one.
My dad was career USAF, WWII-Korea-Vietnam. Only thing I ever saw him wear military related was a Pratt and Whitney engines baseball cap. At 78 years of age he could still recite the manuals for damn near any P&W engine ever used by USAF. Oh yeah, he also had a Confederate Air Force hat, back when you could still do that.
Because I enlisted at 17 most people don’t believe me when I say I served in the evacuation in Vietnam. Although I was 19 at the time that occurred. And it’s on my 214 and awards received included the expeditionary medal , which I exchanged for the VSM. I don’t fit the look of what people think Vietnam veterans should look like (age). So I avoid wearing anything to show that service. I spent my time at Udorn RTAFB until I left in Dec 1975. I’m 69 now, and the youngest person to be able to claim VSM would be 67, with the war officially over on May 7, 1975. I have seen many people wear the VSM on hats and jackets, I never question if they actually did. It’s just not for me.
I joined the Navy right out of H.S. in 1963 at 17. I meet so many Vets wearing my Navy hats including 2 Marine Vets and a Navy Vet that were on my ship in different years. Still a number of WW2 and Korean Vets down hear where I live wearing their hats plus Vets that don’t wear hats. Whenever someone thanks me for my service, I say Army to them and it’s either a branch they served in or they tell me that there Dads served..By the way, since you were involved in the evacutation, did you see my old USS Okinawa LPH-3 at all. I got out in 1966 before she left for San Diego in 1967 and was involved in a couple of the evacuations in Vietman and one in another area which I don’t remember the name of.
I was Air Force Security Specialist 73-76, didn’t go by the water or any ships. C-130 transport to other bases.
My father was a Navy radioman/repair 53-64, USS McMorris. I remember he use to talk about being transferred at sea to other ships to do repair work.
“My current Acting Administrator has no prior Military or Public Service background so his understanding of what we all do here is minimal to say the least.”
What job requires prior military or “Public Service” in order to perform it?
Again, I will take that “-1” as an “I have no idea”.
I guess I have to ask the obvious here. Were the people in those jobs 1) Doing their job and not “working from home” but actually working somewhere else and 2) were they even qualified to do their job as opposed to being nothing more than a DEI hire?
the Post Office should be hiring… they are really short staffed!
The pay is shit and the post office may be next on the chopping block. If we are being completely honest I haven’t gotten a letter since I was deployed in 2008. My last tour in 2010-11 everything was digital, except for some packages. All the crap I get in the mail is junk that I toss straight into the trashcan on the way inside the house. Everything else is on line.
I sent my Maintence fee to our new bank up in Orlando Fl. throught priorty confirmation and I track it. It starts from where I sent it in a contract post office in Delray Beach Fl. and goes up to West Palm Beach USPO facility then up to Ocala and then back to West Palm Beach mail facility then accross the state to Fort Myers then back to another mail facility which I forgot the city name and after 9 days, it got to the post office box and picked up by the bank. I just checked my checking account online to see if my FPL check was posted (Fl. power/lighting) and it was posted on 3/6. I mailed it out on the 3rd of March so it took 3 days to get to Miami Fl. A few times it took up to 8 days to get there from Delray Beach Fl. to Miami Fl. I mailed a box up to Lake Worth Fl. which takes me like a half hour to reach by car. It took around 7 days to get there by priority confirmation. The box went up and down Palm Beach County before it got delivered.
I ordered parts and was tracking delivery. Was sent to my local post office then sent back to originating post office 100 miles away. Then sent to a distribution center 60 miles away before being sent to my local post office who sent it back to post office 60 miles away. Then sent back to my local post office where it sat for 3 days before delivery. 7 days for an overnight package. Post office needs to go private.
I just checked my toyota monthly lease payment going up to North Carolina. The check went to NC and then up to New Jersey. the postal service ain’t the way it was years ago.
So the previously popular “Mailclerk!” is now a garbage man? Sigh. So old….
If you don’t habba a job it’s not because you are a vet.
Just because she’s kinda sorta hot doesn’t mean she deserves to have my attention. I repeat…Our Fed.gov is extremely bloated and there is a lot of waste (out and out grift, too), but they went about this in the wrong way. Yeah it would of taken more time to do some “surgical cuts” v chainsaw. Got a feeling this might come back to bite us in the azz. Time will tell. The “good” ones will move on to bigger and better things…just as the ones that got throwed out by refusing to take the jab.
KoB, you said “repeat”.
That’s a fire command.
Did you know that there are several AIs around that you can give them a picture of any woman and ask the AI to slightly modify her garments in the photo to create an anatomically accurate photograph of said woman without the aforementioned garments? I heard they can even make videos now.
Not that I would ever try anything like that.
That’s absolutely unkosher.
Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff on a billboard in their b-suits. Commissar’s Dream Team!
I always say, “I say again”
The last thing I say is “say again your last”.
Over
Cannot do Elaine Ricci?
D’oh! That should read “Can it do Elaine Ricci?”
Hack is riding in the back of a car in a funeral procession. Air Force veteran who passed at the age of 84.
I agree with you in part, KoB. Surgical cuts would have been the right way to do this. But I do not believe that surgical cuts would have been effective, no matter what manner you went about it. The bureaucracy is too large, corrupt, and tyrannical to take care of effectively without breaking the entire bureaucratic system. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be trillions of dollars in debt, have suffered through 4 years of the worst presidency known to man, and had the equivalent of a 2nd Vietnam. The only way to fix corrupt government that is heavily entrenched (which I feel goes all the way back to FDR), is to take a sledgehammer to it.
Whilst, I definitely do feel for fellow vets who lose their jobs as a result of this, I don’t think there is another way that’ll have meaningful results.
Very good points, AH, it is a tuff call. Cutting the waste and fraud in the grubermint is kinda like the weather…every body talks about it but no one can (or has/will) do anything about it. I was around the RIFs in the 70s, seeing very good ossifers and NCOs get the chop while sorry mofos, that “had protection” were kept. Same in the civvie world. How many “moles/hatchet people” would have had to be sent in to observe and report on the deadbeats? And for how long? That method smacks a little bit too much like a Commie Plot. Last hired = First fired isn’t always the best plan either in that the FNG maybe a hardcharger/eager beaver whereas the ones that have been skating continue to skate. Saw a whole lot of that in the phone company, and according to my sources there, it’s still going on. Semi locally here, Robins AFB, there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, ‘specially from the union, with pleas to the rino US Kongress Kritter to hold “Town Hall Meetings” to protect our jobs, despite it being known for decades that some departments are over staffed with lazy and others are hurting for people that want to do a good job.
Glad it’s not me that (a) has to make these decisions and (b) I’m not caught up in it…on the latter…BTDT.
Best of luck to any of the TAH Family that are caught up in it and if I can help in anyway, well, our Beloved AW1Ed knows my contact info. I do know that locally, Mid Georgia, there are a lot of good jobs open for people that can do a good job. Pretty much like that all over the SE.
The organization I work for is an extremely small cog in an excessively large machine (AMC). I’d go so far as to say the smallest cog. One of our sections is supposed to consist of 5 people. We were fortunate when we had 4. We had zero for around 8 months. This is a critical shop for the post, there is no alternative means of completing their mission. We now have 2 employees, both stellar, but still probationary. We’ve had to request special dispensation from above to keep them if AMC decides to cut probationary employees. My own shop is down 3 technicians, with no hope of replacements. This strange thing happens where if we have an opening here, someone gets hired at Aberdeen. I’m all for trimming the fat and cutting costs, but there are no savings to be made by cutting out the bottom.
I’m not defending her- at all!! I have never heard of her, didn’t see this on the news and only just now am reading about it. However, it seems (to me anyway) that she is talking about the remote government workers that were trying to not return to the office.
My grandfather’s warning continues to ring true in my ears. Especially as I age- “you can’t trust the government”! Doesn’t matter it they are a D, a R or an I.
I believe President Trump is trying to do the right thing. Same with VP Vance, and a minority of senators and reps.the rest are after $! That’s Fed and state.
I would love to be able to trust the government. Experience says I can’t. And they keep reinforcing the lesson.
Well, yeah. Invariably, looking back through history, the development of all governments leads to this:
I’m sure all the public school kids are taught about King George I and the South Sea Bubble. Sell the UK national debt to a private company – man, that’s a great gig as long as it lasts.
I was fired once, so I started a business and worked for myself 40+ years.
All the firings of gov employees should not have been a surprise with the huge debt the country has. If not Trump firing people now, then someone else down the road would have to do it. Hard for anyone to plan ahead when you don’t know if you’ll have a job. Eventually the bills have to get paid and the day of reckoning are tough on everyone. It’s a tough road, but we as citizens allowed this to happen by voting for incompetent politicians. We need a balanced budget by enacted by law. So we don’t end up here again.
Been out of touch for some time here, this may have been covered already.
Who let her in front of microphone? I’m willing to bet 95% of the public can’t name any of Joe Biden’s in the fly if you held a gun to their head. They are supposed to advise, not talk.
Couple of things:
This sounds like a “gotcha” question with an off-the-cuff answer that may or may not reflect her nuanced thoughts.
While I respect a veteran’s service, I also recognize that said vet can be a poor worker / lousy person. Exempli extreamis: John McCain.
In the effort to fix inefficiency in government, especially using the overwhelming-force strategy the Trump administration has had to employ for any chance of success against the swamp creatures, there will be innocents who will be impacted. I hope that any such individuals that, in the long term, the impacts will be mitigated and the end result better for the USA.
Just like my cancer treatments that – while causing me to be cancer-free – also did some permanent damage to my body, fixing the cancer of the (D)emon-rat infestation may do some damage to the way our government functions. Hopefully it, unlike my body, will recover complete and proper function.
YMMV
Yeah, I’m thinking more along these lines….
What we do know is the Opie has a serious case of TDS….
“Well as you know we care about veterans tremendously. That’s something the president has always cared about,” Habba responded. “But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work. That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or [are] not willing to come to work.”