Chip Bok for October 24, 2020

Another case of “He hit me back first.”

Actually it started with Ni*on with the Rs holding back appointments when they held a Senate majority or pushing nominations through when they did. They also did it at other federal levels. This disregard from the Rs is not new, just more blatant.

This is a rerun, though maybe new at GoComics? And it’s a sort of reasonable point that derives from the current situation in which the “two sides” are so much at loggerheads that they literally CANNOT work together. It wasn’t all that long ago (before Newt, approximately) when important Presidential appointees weren’t installed unless almost all the Senators agreed, from BOTH parties (and Bernie). In that circumstance, neither Kavanaugh nor Amy C B’s Master would have gotten past the first trial balloon from the administration, and there would have been no need to “pack” the court in order to maintain something like parity.

Actually it started in 2016 when mitch wouldn’t even give a hearing to Garland.

4 atheists need added to the court.

It turns out Trump LIED again when he tweeted:

“I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any [and] all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!”

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Filed in court:

When President Donald Trump tweeted that he had authorized the full declassification of all the documents having to do with the Russia investigation, he didn’t mean it literally and didn’t intend to make public information from the Mueller investigation, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said in a court filing Tuesday.

Contradicting the plain text of what Trump published for the world to see, Meadows said in a sworn court statement, “The president indicated to me that his statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders and do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents.”

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Naturally, all Trump Disciples believe both the original tweet AND the denial.

They also believe he is 6’ 3" and not obese.

And that he did not know if he was tested on the day of the first debate (it was on the honor system).

And that he did not know when he was last tested negative.

Not that he would want to infect Biden or anything like that.

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They even believe they are NOT part of “those disgusting people” that he is relieved he no longer has to shake hands with.

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(And he is STILL a Traitor)

Trump is getting ready to “pack” the Civil Service with political cronies…..

“President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order creating a new classification of “policy-making” federal employees that could strip swaths of the federal workforce of civil service protections just before the next president is sworn into office. …..

The order sets a swift timetable for implementation: Agencies have 90 days to conduct a “preliminary” review of their workforces to determine who should be moved into the new employee classification—a deadline that coincides with Jan. 19, the day before the next presidential inauguration."

https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/10/stunning-executive-order-would-politicize-civil-service/169479/

Fallacy- Just because a trend could be started does not imply that an action is necessarily wrong. In this specific case, the last time the court was “packed” the problem eventually corrected itself. Add to this that constitution deliberately does not specify the number of chief justice may sit on the supreme court and this whole argument losses ground.

Groundhog day already?

I see nothing wrong with 21 or more Supremes. Why should it be 9?

The GOP has always expected the Democrats to be docile and play fair. Being a Democrat, my response these days is it’s time to play hard ball, so to speak.

To quote Joe Biden: “Oh, God!”

And your point is?After all, as the GOP would say, “It’s legal,” “It ain’t against the constitution.”

Rerun – https://www.gocomics.com/chipbok/2020/10/16

This started in 2017

Chip got the date wrong. It should be 2017. For the Dems to pack the court, a lot of conservative justices are going to have to leave are die. I don’t see that happening any time soon. Of course, the Dems, should they take back the Senate and WH could reconfigure the size of the court, like to 13, but that’s a major step even for the Dems.

actually its happened a number of times throughout history… The original SC only had 6 justices. … but everyone knows (even if they don’t want to admit it) who is to blame here. Of course Joe could always go the Republican route. Just say no, he won’t do it… even come up with speeches and soliloquies about why he won’t and patriotism yada yada yada… and then when he is in power, just go back on his word and do it anyway… but I guess that’s the cost of having integrity.

We need a constitutional amendment that does two thing: first, SCOTUS justices should be appointed for a single, non-renewable 18 year term, with one justice’s term expiring every two years. This would guarantee that every president gets to appoint two justices. Secondly, any presidential appointee that requires “advice and consent of the Senate” MUST be voted on within 60 days of his/her appointment. Failure to do so will be deemed a confirmation.

As a student of History, I can assure you this is NOT the first time it has been tried before, by FDR!