Wednesday, January 11: Goodbye Congressional Accountability
Just what the doctor ordered: More insider trading
In a genius strategic move that nobody could’ve seen coming, republican members of the House of Representatives voted to pass a new set of rules that will severely limit the ability of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). This is one organization dedicated to investigating members of congress for any potential wrongdoing, including stock trading (looking at you Madam Pelosi).
It seems the good ol’ boys & gals in the republican majority congress moved to pre-emptively kill off any investigations against its members as they restricted the power of the independent ethics office. This move comes just as the OCE was weighing whether to open inquiries into lawmakers who defied subpoenas issued by the House January 6th committee last year.
The overall rules package passed by congress first undercut the ability of OCE to function, with changes that strike at its principal vulnerabilities to defang its investigative powers for at least the next two years. The changes to the OCE are twofold: reintroducing term limits for members of the bipartisan board, which would force out three of four Democratic-appointed members, and restricting its ability to hire professional staff to the first 30 days of the new congressional session. We’ll see how these changes directly affect OCE in the coming days, but the decision to use their first day legislating to undercut ethics watchdog groups doesn’t exactly bode well for what this republican congress has in store for us over the coming years.
Obviously the one clear winner in all of this is Georgie Santos, the Long Island congressional scam queen, who won’t have to worry about being investigated just yet for his litany of lies, his familiarity with fraud, his woefully woven web of weird wrongdoings, his commitment to chicanery, and the true depth of his deviousness and deceit. His exact reaction to the matter was summed up when he said, “I think it's fantastic." Breathtaking.
Side Items
Israel Outlaws Palestinian Flag: National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered police in Israel to ban Palestinian flags from public places in the latest crackdown by the new zionist regime. It’s a sure sign of a thriving democracy when even displaying the flag of another nation is against the law. The situation in Israel is untenable, as the political reality in Palestine demonstrates that the Israeli state will forever be at war with the Palestinian people so long as they resist the colonization of their lands
Flooding in LA: At least 17 people have died as a result of the rising and rushing floodwaters, with more rain on the forecast for California over the coming days. Much of the state received rainfall totals 400% to 600% above average over the past weeks, and millions of residents remain under flood alerts. This is just the first of four more atmospheric river events – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport moisture over thousands of miles – that are expected to hit California in the next 10 days
The Golden Globes were yesterday; honestly I don’t know who pays attention to these shows anymore, but some favorites took home awards, including Abbot Elementary and “Everyhing, Everywhere, All at Once”. The awards show even featured an appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who appeared confident in his prerecorded video message. You’d think there might be better ways to spend his time while his country is at war, but I’m no military strategist