I'm only bribing guys because the other bastard is bribing guys. I can't let the bribery gap get too large, or they will be coming for my vital fluids next!
It would be nice if this served as a pointed lesson to stop putting useless, unwanted, invasive features and AI into things. Or at least to make them work.
If my credit card debt vanished, it would measurably improve the quality of the rest of my life. I'm not gonna just pile the debt back up, and not having to make the payments would free up money I could save for retirement or emergency.
If everything is a national emergency, nothing is.
I am appalled at how well "flood the zone" and "move fast and break things" works to destroy a nation. If sanity ever returns, the response to either action needs to be the death penalty. I don't know how to properly write a law for that, but it is clear to me that any lesser response will only cause the bastard to back up, and try again.
We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,
Wrong. You have plenty of guidance. It's called "the law" and you went to school to learn how to understand it. If your people get instructions to violate the law, the instructions are invalid.
I'm only bribing guys because the other bastard is bribing guys. I can't let the bribery gap get too large, or they will be coming for my vital fluids next!