Lost In The Oversight

Well, they tried.

The first order of business for the new republican congress was to eliminate the Independent Office Of Congressional Ethics. They succeeded- for awhile- until we the people lit up the phones of various congress-persons condemning the outrageous action. Our Electorally appointed CEO-to-be took credit for the rescinding of the move because he (of course) tweeted about the timing of the move, rather than the move itself. He simply thought there were other nefarious actions they could have taken first. CNN and other sites have willingly given Trump credit for the change in direction. Trump seems to have really grabbed them.

The republicans have long screamed about "job-killing regulations" but that has usually been directed at the EPA. They believe that no one should tell a company where to drill for oil or what mountain top can be blown off to get at some coal because those activities create jobs for people. Deregulation makes a lot of sense to people who don't give a lot of thought to things.

I'm not sure if many ordinary citizens were upset that congress was caught with America's pants down around its ankles. Even the dumbest reichtards must have been aghast at the intent. I looked for comments on the threads and none of the usual suspects were upset about the thwarting at all. They aren't the most astute bunch. Though addicted to outrage, they save most of it for manufactured drama like Hillary's server or black folks getting all uppity (again) about their special civil rights. No complaints so far about damn liberals hog-tying congressional business with job-killing ethics...

I'm not so certain that the usual suspects suddenly recognized right from wrong. They spot trends all the time, things that turn out to be one-in-a-row actions usually committed by blacks or libs that pose a dangerous precedent in the Land Of The Free. Things like "safe places" on college campuses. You'd think they'd want their congressmen to have safe places too. Safe places like congress itself where they could enact legislation without the watchful eye of the press, the media, the nosy liberals or any ethics watchdogs. Isn't that what they voted for?

This congress isn't going to allow any live-streaming of it's business either and will tolerate no protesting by democrats or we the people. The abrupt, interrupted dismantling of the ethics office was an extension of those other actions. Kind of an exclamation point. It'll happen eventually in some fashion. They can just defund it, I'd imagine. "Too expensive", they might decide, "we've got homeless veterans, ya know". That's a common refrain these days.

We'll see if there isn't some gnashing of teeth about this. You have to figure there will be if some *independent* outlets like CNN were so quick to praise Trump for not actually doing anything. Even outside of the congressional gangsters and the warlords they toil for, there has to be idiots that believe a republican congress should be free and clear to operate as they see fit. You know the drill. Some paid poster is always on-line noting that "...the democrats could have done (this) too when they had the majority of congress but, they didn't- but they could have..." So, that makes it OK for the republicans to do it- the precedent of not doing something, essentially.

Amongst the republican fan faithful there is an abundance of people who think our police should be free to kill darker people without oversight from liberal do-gooders. These are the folks who signed on to the ALEC-written "Stand Your Ground" laws without pausing to consider that they could be killed and their killer walks free because of such a law. These people don't think things through. They're too busy reading between the lines. The law and life are like jazz. It's the notes they don't play that some people hear.

White, conservative males will sign off on a lot of things if they think they will only affect minorities or women.  For people who always think only about themselves, they never really think about themselves.