Lisa Gordon-Hagerty resigns as chief of nuclear weapons agency

[LearnedHand]

Source: The Hill (via MSN)

The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and under secretary of energy for nuclear security has resigned from her position effective immediately, the Department of Energy announced Friday.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/lisa-gordon-hagerty-resigns-as-chief-of-nuclear-weapons-agency/ar-BB1aLRXh

[Girard442]

1. Ominous.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. WTF does this mean?

I hope they change the codes for the nuclear football.....

[LearnedHand]

4. Right?

Gulp

[Skraxx]

3. Is Trump Trying to Fuck with Nukes???

[Javaman]

5. Couple this withe the orange assholes want to fire esper and you get..

Less people to question his use of nukes

[elleng]

6. 'Sent her letter of resignation to the White House on Friday following nearly a year of tensions

between Gordon-Hagerty's office and Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

The sources told Defense News that Gordon-Hagerty submitted her letter directly to the White House, rather than to Brouillette, to signal her stark disagreement with the energy secretary over recent budget and oversight conflicts. . .

Earlier this year, Brouillette attempted to reduce funding from NNSA before defense officials eventually pushed the White House to support the nuclear security agency.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) led pro-defense lawmakers in an effort to give the Pentagon more official control over NNSA, while House lawmakers created several pieces of legislation aimed at giving the energy department greater authority over the agency.

Then, the Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act, passed by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Sept. 9, changed language that made the NNSA a quasi-independent entity, moving it more fully under the Department of Energy.

According to Defense News, the move was seen by NNSA officials as Brouillette's attempt to dismantle the agency, with Inhofe saying in a Sept. 17 hearing that certain energy department officials were "rogue actors" who aimed to "undermine" America's nuclear weapons modernization.

The NNSA leadership change comes after a South Korean official told Reuters on Tuesday that North Korea was building two new submarines, one of which is capable of carrying submarine-launched ballistic missiles.'

[LearnedHand]

8. Isn't Brouillette another one of those Acting cabinet heads?

Or was he confirmed?

[elleng]

10. Dunno.

'Dan Brouillette serves as the 15th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Secretary Brouillette has three decades of experience in both the public and private sector. Most recently he was the Deputy Secretary of Energy.'

[Ford_Prefect]

11. Dan Brouillette has lots of friends in the nuclear energy industry.

He is part of the push to "modernize" the US nuclear arsenal. Which means lots of new toys and lots of new investment in Nuke tech. He began this under Shrub and has grown it more alarmingly under Trump. It is part of why Trump ended participation in all those treaties regulating nuclear weapons, as a payoff both to a certain Saudi Prince and to GOP patrons in energy and weapons industries. At the same time it also benefits an element of the Armed Forces Command who feel we need more nukes rather than less and more command officers to supervise their deployment.

[elleng]

12. Thanks for info.

[SheltieLover]

9. Ty for the context Ellen!

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Imagine a competent deputy is in charge.

Asshole even TRIES anything illegal and he’s toast, publicly hospitalized with a really angry DIA pill pusher finding veins in a dozen extremities to tap with twin carboys of lithium-like 24/7. Hope he also has to listen to a most mediocre boy band for background.

[yuiyoshida]

13. did someone try to make her do something she didn't want to do?

Illegally?? will we ever know??

[OneBlueSky]

14. don't know about that . . . but one thing I do know . . .

is that the military personnel responsible for the "football" and nukes in general better have some kind of failsafe protocol in place that will activate if Trump tries to access the nuclear codes during his remaining three months in office . . .

the guy is a legitimate psycho, which makes two things crystal clear: 1) he cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons, and 2) the fact that he got as many votes as he did means this country is in one hell of a mess . . . if Biden can find a "language of reconciliation" that maintains core democratic principles while getting through to Trump voters, he'll be a miracle worker , , ,

good luck, Joe . . . we're with you . . .

[Marcuse]

17. There is a precedent for this president.

In the period before Nixon’s Aug. 9, 1974, resignation, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger reportedly ordered certain presidential orders — especially those related to nuclear arms — to be cleared by himself personally or National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

The story goes that Nixon had alarmed Schlesinger and advisors by declaring: “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone, and in 25 minutes 70 million people will be dead.”[link:https://time.com/5388648/watergate-nixon-anonymous-op-ed/|

[Lars39]

18. Going to be tough to do

while prosecutions proceed.

[Toorich]

15. ...Putin...

...wants whom appointed to the position now?

[LudwigPastorius]

16. I hope that...

the Joint Chiefs have discussed what they would do if Trump ordered an unprovoked attack on...say, Iran.

Intervening would be the right thing to do, but I doubt it would be legal. Somebody would have to risk their career, and possibly prosecution, if they tried to stop it.

I think we'd all be better served if some of these people stayed at their posts for the next couple of months, rather than resigning in protest.

[burrowowl]

19. Kick