Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 18, 2010

Honey reads you easily, Duke.

Good thinking, Duke. As Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

Asian swallows? How many must there be to carry a coconut?

Because stebon cannot bring himself to open his eyes about his boy, GWB, he has nothing original or relevant left in his creative mind–nothing left but mindless drivel.

stebon has missed with the pointless diatribes of the last few days and has now turned to even more worthless previous material.

Oh, how the mighty (both stebon and GWB) have fallen.

< splat>

That presumes that the likes of Stebon were ever “mighty.”

Me, I wonder … if you’re one of those right wing moonbats for whom anything attached to a Democrat is evil just because it’s attached to a Democrat, it isn’t even why you would follow Doonesbury on a regular basis - it’s why you would follow AND comment on it.

What THAT is is trolling, and usually a sure sign of brain damage.

First, the comic: IMHO, Duke is the best character Trudeau has ever created, and I enjoy every strip in which he appears. If you parse them carefully, you’ll see that Trudeau will occasionally even skewer his fellow left wing lunatics by using Duke to point out some of the absurdities and gross exaggerations of their positions.

Second, the comments: We are more than 2 years into Obama’s term. His party controls both houses of Congress. Is there a possibility that a time will come when he and his supporters stop trying to blame Bush for every thing that happens?

It’s Bush’s fault that Obama was elected 2 years ago. Deal with it!

BTW Rocket Scientist, 2 years will be Jan 2011.

..why do these loonies that hate Doonesbury and Gary Trudeau so much always make it their mission to be the first ones to comment ?

I believe it is a smear campaign..probably by some weird(or not so weird) right wing group.

It smells of Karl Rove.You don’t have to make them dis-believe…you just have to make them doubt.Very un-Christian,with touches of Marxism & Nazism thrown in to boot

Speaking of Karl Rove..am I the only one that thinks of him as a modern day Rasputin?

Karl Rove Rasputin/Karl Rove Rasputin/Karl Rove Rasputin…too bad we can’t kick our heels together three times and he’ll go away.

Mr.Trudeau,I am not asking you to listen to my over the top rantings{I’ve made them over the top to parody the righr winger’s rants}.I am just asking you to keep up the good work.Of all the long standing strips,your Doonesbury,remains the freshest and strongest.It is one of the best comic strips:period.

Stebon, how can he ignore the last few days? These comics are written weeks ahead of time. Do you not understand how comics work?

And stop blaming America’s mess on Bush? He had 8 years to bankrupt the country. How quickly can anyone clean it up when he keeps finding roadblocks just for the sake of roadblocks?

Did Republicans ever stop blaming Clinton for anything?

The oil disaster is the fault of the industry. THEY are the ones who insisted they could regulate themselves. THEY are the ones who insisted a blowout at a mile under the ocean could never happen. THEY are the ones who submitted falsified documents. THEY should be arrested and convicted of criminal negligence and be put away for a long time. Oil subsidies should be removed from the over-bloated oil barons and given to installing windmills, not oil gushers, along our coasts as well as other renewable energy projects. Free America from the filthy grip of oil NOW!

I’m confused. I have read GT for decades. I also read the NYT. Can’t say that I agree with either but I want to see what the other side is saying.

The comments here are usually useless slogans Blame it on Bush! Obama’s had two years, do something! Bush got us in Afghanistan. Obama put in 30,000, like Johnson in Vietnam. Bush spent our surplus and left a deficit. Obama spent more in 3 months than any president Health care will bankrupt the county People are bankrupt because of health bill

Children, if you throw out one stupid slogan, someone has another stupid slogan to answer. And who are liberals to say conservatives should not speak on an open discussion.. Perhaps you would like to repeal the First Amendment? The PC police could rule

End Bushe’ Patriot Act? Who controls Congress? Out of GITMO? Obama PROMISED w/i a year Hmmm? Health Care. Nov. is open season, see what you can afford. BP oil? Big oil contributions since the 20s. Bush’s fault?

Got a solution? Write your Congressman. Don’t rant.

Sigh! I have no comment about the politics but I do because we all blamed Bush for his flaw issues for 8 years and look what happened with the econimic that already plummeted down into the hole very badly. The people already lost their homes, lost their jobs and what mores they had already. Obama tries his best to fix the messes while he runs as President for 4 years. Hope all goes well!

By the way, Yeah! We all the people are so pissed off about the oil gushing a lot in the water at Gulf of Mexico. WE blamed on BP for that mess over there. Shame on BP!

Please flag the trolls and move on. No need to even comment further than that. Thank you.

This is the first Boonesbury to make me chuckle in quite a while. Perhaps I’m sentimental about Honey…or Mao jackets.

Sandfan and fbjsr: Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Today is July 18, 2010, which means he’s been president for slightly less than eighteen months. That’s a wee bit shy of two years. Let me introduce you to this useful tool for telling how much time has gone by–it’s called a “calendar.”

Bush gets the blame for everything that happened ( that Obama is slowly repairing) because it was his fault. Whinning about it won’t change the facts

When someone burns down a house, do you blame the firefighters who worked to put out the fire? The cleanup crews clearing away the ashes and debris? The architects, contractors, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters who are rebuilding?

No, you blame the arsonist(s). You can blame the others for not working quickly enough to save the house, or for doing shoddy work rebuilding the house, but you can’t blame them for burning the house down.

Bush et al (and in some cases, to an extent, those before him) burned down several houses; they get the blame for that. Obama et al may or may not be doing enough, quickly enough, to rebuild those houses, you can blame them for that. Or you can give them a chance, maybe lend your expertise or assistance, to make sure the house is rebuilt properly. So far I haven’t seen very much that is entirely Obama et al’s fault; being on cleanup/rebuild duty has kept them busy enough.

@defunctdoormat

By posting early, stebon/nobets took us off-topic, but if you flag every poster who does that you’ll soon empty our Doonesbury forum. Your best advice is your injunction to move on, since nobets’s signature is already a flag. If you save your flags for spam (i.e., ads and other nonparticipants like horce manure), GoComics responds quickly.

Also, posters like Edcole (below) should read what’s already been posted to avoid redundancy, which is analogous to history repeating itself on this forum. If you’re just dropping by the forum to shout, and you’re not listening or staying for a reply, you’re nobet(ter than) nobets.

@ Those who are still reading

I’m sure the forum doesn’t need another dialogue like my fantasy post yesterday on NEOLIBS. Before dropping the topic of Obama vs. neolibs, though, I’d like to know what GT’s readers think of the closely related topic of history.

Those who are turned off by these topics can skip the rest of this post and go back to Duke and Honey. Those who are interested might spend a minute or two on a little game I’ve devised.

I’ve gathered from the forum several comments on history that have been posted in the last few days. Which commenter—or, in the first two cases, which poster also—do you think

(a) is most likely to take history seriously and find a meaning in it, and

(b) which commenter or poster do you think most nearly captures GT’s view of history?

Here are the comments:

(1) “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”—George Santayana (quoted by Sheik)

(2) “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.”—Aldous Huxley (quoted by pbarnrob)

(3) “I do not wish to rewrite history. I would like only for the truth to be known.”—Justice22

(4) “July 15th: One hundred forty years ago, the U.S. re-admitted Georgia, w/out, unfortunately, sending all its rebellious Whites out to sea on a barge. July 15th: the 118th birthday of Walter Benjamin & the 80th birthday of Jacques Derrida.”—BrianCook

it will take much longer than 18 months, or two years or four years to repair the damage wrought by W over his 8 disastrous years.

Re: GT’s view of history – Item #1

Re: Shrub/Sprout – Didn’t vote fore either one once, never mind TWICE!

Re: Stebon> no need to read his comments anymore. HIS are repeats/repeats/repeats –filling in the blanks.

And I will not get into the Puritanical Maniacal mindset this country has let become Political y Correct.

Sandfan, better check your calendar. Obama became President on January 20, 2009. In two days, he will have been in office for one and one-half years, which is not more than two.

If you can “swallow” half of what notbets says I’ll “swallow” the rest. We can be sick together. After we recover, say six months from now, I’ll take my eggs punny side up.

I sat and watched for 8 years while Bush&Dick drove this country into the ground. When I complained about it, all I heard from EVERYONE was “Support your President” or “Clinton was a sleazeball”. I was in black depression.

Now we have a president who is working to turn it around. His tactics and his messaging may not always be effective. There are innumerable roadblocks. But the strategy is generally “reform”.

At this period in American history, I am greatly relieved that we have a president who clearly is at least trying to pull the cart in the right direction. He may not get as far as we need, but it’s the right direction.

Dang, that’s the best thing Lewreader’s ever posted in a comment. Are we sure it’s really him?

Our first poster today, “stebon”, is a good representative of a current proposition.

Perhaps not the best authority to quote, but on one episode of the cartoon show “South Park” a cartoon “George W. Bush” explained to the kids why so many groups who advocate crazy positions thrive: although a large majority of the American public realize these opinions are crazy, a quarter of the country is retarded. When one reflects that, by definition, one-half of the population is at or below the average IQ, it’s a proposition that’s not too hard to accept.

It is nice to see Honey back in the strip. She’s been gone for years and I’ve missed her. She’s the perfect foil for Uncle Duke and he’s funnier with her.

Hunter Thompson inspired me to explore Gonzo possibilities, I just didn’t have a lawyer like Lazlo.

One of my favorite Thompson Books was “Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga”. At the end “Duke” gets his asstrashed in a sort of “Blood in/Blood out” type ritual. Here’s a clip I found that adds some clarity to that incident. You can almost see the buzz bubbles popping around Thompson’s head. As usual Trudeau screws up the nose though.

http://bit.ly/9d58xc

Richard M. Nixon Gerald R. Ford Ronald W. Reagan George H. W. Bush George W. Bush

There’s some quality leadership! Mission accomplished!

All BHO has done in 2 years is clean up the republican economic catastrophe, fix healthcare, withdraw us from from Iraq and soon fix wallstreet and the big banks. He really isn’t doing much…

GT, as always in the 30 years I’ve been reading him, is spot on!

Honey !

@ corzak, amen.

Politics are starting to make me tired. I confess to having had plenty of “hope,” that ridiculed commodity, when Obama was elected. I’m still proud to have voted for him and will do it again in 2012. But I also agree with those who think the political system is broken. It’s more about winning inter-party feuds than actually accomplishing anything. Of course, it’s probably been that way longer than I want to know.

And final note - always a pleasure to see Duke and Honey. I’m a latecomer to Doonesbury and have caught up on the best years through collections. A treat.

kfaatz,

I agree with you and corzak, but we wouldn’t even be talking on this forum if politics made GT tired—-and he’s been studying politics longer than we have.

Which collections would you recommend to another latecomer?

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and hazard a guess…

Libs will stop blaming EVERYTHING on GWB when Cons stop declaring EVERYTHING BHO does a failure?

i miss honey !

Liberals may blame GWB for everything, but they’re not the only ones. My boy is a right-wing conservative (Where did I fail?) and he blames everything on Clinton. If he can’t find a way to blame Clinton, he’ll go all the way back to Kennedy.

palin drome

Try to find “The Doonesbury Chronicles.” It starts with the first strips, you meet all the characters and how they developed.

My only post on this will be to say that it seems funny to me that the very thing President Obama is doing to the economy is what the liberals complain that Bush did. Bush overspent and enlarged Government on a scale never approached even by Democrats, and yet Democrats in Congress and abetted by President Obama have managed to outspend Bush’s 8 years within the first year and a half. The only difference between the two on economic policy is that Bush gave EVERY taxpayer (not just the rich ones) a tax cut. Both Presidents enacted profusely expensive bailout plans which did nothing to help the economy. In my opinon, a much better bailout would have been to return all withheld income taxes to folks making less than $250,000 per year. Those making more already pay the bulk of income taxes, and those making less could use the money to pay down their debt, returning money to the banks, making them more solvent while reducing the personal debt load of the average American. I’d be willing to bet it would also cost a lot less than bailing out corporations which are “too big to fail.”