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The GOP is planning to overwhelm you with information so you don't get too outraged about any one thing. If that sounds like a baseless conspiracy theory to you, let's take a look at how jam-packed the agenda is on Wednesday. In just one day, the Senate is scheduled to hold confirmation hearings for six people who've agreed to work for the terrifying president-elect, including some racists and religious extremists. Here's the list: Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA director, Betsy DeVos for secretary of education, Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, John Kelly for secretary of homeland security, and Elaine Chao for secretary of transportation.


Oh, and by the way, Donald Trump will have his first press conference SINCE THE ELECTION. And that just so happens to be on the same day the Senate plans to vote on various bills aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act too. So good luck keeping up with all that.

The scariest part about all this is it's a pretty solid strategy to keep the public uninformed. Not only will it overwhelm individuals with too much information to sort through and process, but it'll also put a strain on newsrooms—many of which won't be able to devote adequate resources to thoroughly cover each hearing along with Trump's press conference and the Senate votes.


Oh, and on top of that, the ethics reviews for Trump's cabinet picks won't be properly finished in time for all the hearings coming up. The nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics says they just don't have enough time to vet Trump's nominations, and Senate Republicans are refusing to give them more time. That means neither the public nor lawmakers will really know if Trump's picks have any damning conflicts of interests unless the Democrat's plan to drag out the hearings to a reasonable pace is successful.

This Republican strategy isn't just a way to keep the public in the dark though. Perhaps just as frighteningly, this is a good way to keep lawmakers uninformed about what they're actually voting on, giving them plausible deniability for approving nominations who have signaled they plan to work with Trump to take our country in a frightening direction. For GOP lawmakers, ignorance seems to be bliss.