Slate - "The Office of Government Ethics Website Crashed Today. Yes, Its a Metaphor."

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/02/09/the_office_of_government_ethics_website_crashed_today.html

by Elliot Hannon

It’s been a tough several weeks for, well, ethics in America. You may argue that beneath the surface governing has always been an unseemly business. That’s fine. You’ve been hurt before and you’re not sure you’ll ever love again. Even still, the brazen flouting of the concept formerly known as ethics has been a sight to behold. Exhibit W came on Thursday morning when Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway encouraged Fox News viewers to buy Ivanka Trump’s schlocky line of stuff.

“This is just a wonderful line,” Conway told Fox & Friends, one day after Donald Trump went after Nordstrom for discontinuing his daughter’s products. “I own some of it. I fully—I’m going to just give it a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.” Conway hawked Ivanka’s merch from the WHITE HOUSE. That step appeared to pique Americans interest in, well, ethics and many, many of them hopped onto the internet and cruised over to the Office of Government Ethics website to remind themselves where the line between right and wrong is. How many people did this? The OGE website crashed and was down for hours due to abnormally high traffic.

1/OGE’s website, phone system and email system are receiving an extraordinary volume of contacts from citizens about recent events.

— U.S. OGE (@OfficeGovEthics) February 9, 2017
“We received a high volume of traffic and we are looking at ways to redirect traffic and add capacity,” an OGE spokesman told Politico. The site appeared to be down well into the evening, as late as even 9 p.m. or so, but is now accessible.

The website for the Office of Government Ethics crashed today. It’s a metaphor. You get it.