[m4rtink]

Firing any probationary employees withou a real cause is cruel, has zero dignity and looks totally stupid. But this makes it even worse!

Like what is the great thing that needs to be done right now that justifies trampling over peoples lives like this ?

[hakfoo]

That's what's fascinating. Given the capture of all three branches of government, they could presumably get all their wishes "above the board." Congress would willingly rubber-stamp shrinking the government to three nuclear missiles and the guy who polishes the exhibits at the Smithsonian, but actually enumerating what they want and waiting for it to wend through procedure was too slow.

Part of that might be that they know it's a smash-and-grab operation: the moment they started the cuts, the alarm was already ringing and it's only a matter of time before (Congress | the courts | Luigi Mangione | Several million annoyed pensioners) man up and interrupt the process. (exactly the nature of the interruption is clearly TBD).

When the dust clears, the fascinating thing to study will be the real priorities. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the collateral damage is a smoke screen around very specific grudges against specific people and agencies-- the financial equivalent of burning down the entirety of San Diego because your ex-wife lives there. There was the whole USAID/Starlink angle already, but surely other people got theirs.