I think I've figured out the rationale for some of the things that the administration is doing, that seem incomprehensible to ordinary folks.
A lot of what the government does is: cover up for the carelessness, or absent - mindedness, or obliviousness of people. For instance—and I'm not sure whether this particular offense is one that they have targeted: lots of people forget to do something by a deadline. Pay your taxes, get your car inspected, etc.
A kinder, gentler bureaucracy often softens the blow of a harsh penalty by either giving warnings, or making the punishment proportional to the lateness. Though the people are grateful for these (old time) leniencies, they don't realize that it is expensive. There is often additional staff to handle the processing, and checking the conditions for the leniency. They need to be paid. They need to be supervised. And people have to deal with the paychecks and benefits of that extra staff, which—knowing how bureaucracy operates—requires yet more staff.
Musk probably thinks that 90% of the Washington bureaucracy is for the purpose of determining who the shysters are. Instead, Musk probably thinks, let's slap the fines on anyone who appears to be out of compliance, and let the person assessed for the fine, deal with convincing us about deserving leniency, instead of us proactively being lenient. This is a sort of 'Kill them all, and let the gods decide the innocent' approach.
This attitude is sure to be seen as harsh by practically everyone. We can all sympathize, having been in the position of forgetting to do something, or do it on time. (Caused by the multitude of stupid things that everyone has to do, which makes it impossible to remember all of them. Register to vote. Fight the crowds at the polls. Remember who to vote for, because not every candidate is marked so that we can tell whom to vote for, etc etc. To make it worse, a lot of judges are on both the Democrat and the GOP ticket.)
So as time goes by, the bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger, as the government makes it easier and easier for people to do their duty. "In the old xxx days," Musk must have said, "we just beheaded people for not having gotten the safety inspection on their chariots. In this society, we let them off easy, and give them a lollipop if they pay their fees on time! We treat adults like babies."
And of course, similar hostility towards education. What about the poor deserving souls, who can't do their homework because of their heel spurs? Well, off with their heads. (And we impound their Mustangs.)
Of course, all this has to be explained to the representatives of the MAGA crowd in the House and the Senate, who are (of course) pea brains, who possibly bribed their way through law school (though some Democrats probably did that too, like this Menendez guy, who took bribes from Egypt). So it's all stated in terms that are common in MAGA circles, in terms of huge lies that people tell, and Social Security checks being paid for dead people, etc etc.
Meanwhile, there is a huge amount of waste in the armed forces and the Pentagon. It remains to be seen whether Musk's horde of hackers have the guts to walk in there, and demand to inspect their receipts. Their budget—unaudited for absolutely decades—is unbelievably enormous; so one estimates that the waste is, proportionally, enormous.
My savings are invested in stocks, because the pitiful interest that banks pay for savings can't keep up with inflation. So I'm not at all happy with how things are going. I don't support Hamas, but I support Netanyahu still less, so that's pretty bad anyway you look at it.
Kay.
