It's not our job to educate fascists, crack a book.

Well, Checks come from the Check Republic. A region and culture that has had its own trials and tribulations in the past century, getting over taken and reformed a few times.

Balances, on the other hand, were from old lost Balancing Empire. This was really just a stubborn remnant of the Roman Empire that didn't want to admit the party was over.

Together, the refrain "Checks and Balances" is normally to remind us of our ambiguous and ephemeral place in history. Are we hardy folk like the Checks who will remain even as the political landscape changes? Or are we Balances left twisting in the wind?

Then, I think the earlier poster was expressing his own sense of loss in proclaiming there aren't even Checks anymore. It's no longer ambiguous, we are un-Checked and out of Balance.

Folks, don't fall for rayiner's in-bad-faith comments. Best not to respond, they are trying to goad you into an argument.

I’m not making a “bad faith argument.” I’m trying to fight the widespread misinformation that there are “checks and balances” within the executive branch.

You weren't even making an argument, just a comment. Standard tactic (you have been called out on this before) to write a short, goading comment with no content.

If you want, you can attempt to clarify why you're asking the person you're replying to if they know what checks and balances are. We can all ready social study books and read wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers_under_the...) and it seems unlikely the response to your question is going to differ much from the philosophy and practice described there.

Not sure where you got the "widespread misinformation about checks and balances in the executive branch", the C&B are across branches, nobody implied otherwise.

This is an article about laying off a group (18F), that was never established by Congress in the first place. So I think if someone invokes checks and balances here, it’s fair to enquire what they think checks and balances are.

Saying “hey, don’t you know what checks and balances are” seems ruder.