Last week, The Oklahoma House successfully passed HB 4156.
Dubbed the “Oklahoma GOP Is Grandstanding on Immigration Act,” it will create a new crime called “impermissible occupation,” and give our state’s anti-immigration law enforcement complex the power and opportunity to fulfill their most carnal authoritarian desires and freely arrest “undocumented” workers for simply being here “illegally.”
The law will likely be challenged in the courts, won’t put a dent in The Crisis At The Border™, and will likely boost Oklahoma’s already world-class incarceration rate, but it did give GOP politicians the opportunity to stump on the issue and show the racists voters in their ranks that they care.
One of those people includes House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols. He’s considered one of the more articulate and skilled orators of the House GOP, which sadly tells you everything you need to know about the House GOP.
Jon took a lot of questions from Democrats who opposed the bill. They’re against the legislation because it doesn’t solve any problems, crosses into federal legal territory, and seems motivated by racist extremism more than anything else.
To give those concerns some validity, Jon went out of his way to admit that he “wants to stand and lock hands” with all the people who plan on using the bill for racism, profiling, and all the “good things” that lead to quality community policing.
Check this out:
That’s weird.
From talking about “colored babies” to referencing the negotiating tactics of the Jewish people, Oklahoma lawmakers are well-known for letting their true feelings and thoughts slip after you hand them a microphone, but I expected better from Jon Echols.
I know his pal Scott Mitchell wasn’t on hand to coach and guide him along, but Jon’s supposed to be one of the smart members of the GOP! Whether he innocently tripped over his own words or really does want to hold hands and sing about Coca-Cola with his racist and profiling police buddies, he should remember to not say the quiet parts out loud!
Also, Jon may want to read a book about the Oklahoma City Bombing.
Although he was “born in 1995,” he apparently doesn’t remember the bombing was carried about by home-grown terrorists like Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols, or – if you’re a conspiracy theorist – the FBI, and not people who chose to move to our country to flee oppression and poverty, and look for a better life for themselves and their families.
Either way, if Jon was really against terrorism, you’d think he’d also author a law to combat right-wing militia groups, Civil War planners, and the other “secret societies” created by violent GOP-types who harbor extremist beliefs.
For example, is Jon for a law that will give cops the right to arrest terrorists who tried to usurp American democracy on January 6th??
I doubt it. Who else would he stand up and lock hands with?
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
