Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 10, 2011

I think Duke is a better poker player than His Excellency.

Good morning all…

You know you’re in trouble when you’re dealing with someone whose grasp of reality is shakier than Jeff Redfern’s.Maybe Trff should hire Sorkh Razil to reinstate him. Hey, if Rascal can depose him, he should have no problem doing the reverse, right?

Is there time to sign this guy up for the Republican debate tomorrow night?

@leftwingpatriot The other day you said of Chris Muir: “[H]e made it seem like that Boehner got the short end of the stick in the debt deal. In today’s strip, Obama is to blame for shutting down of lemonade stands.” You’re right about the lemonade stand closures – that’s the work of a whole bunch of municipal government weenies, not the Feds. But Boehner decidedly got the short end of the stick. Reid won. The deal raised the debt ceiling and called for no-details-specified spending cuts amounting to a tiny fraction of the future deficits. If Reid is whining it’s because he had to actually put out effort for what he got. He didn’t get his little victory handed to him on a silver platter.

Prediction: when the American people have had enough of the Tea Party they’re going to awaken, arise, and boot behind!.Hear the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s MY HOMETOWN, and you’ll understand. Boy, will you ever understand!.I was eight years old and running with a dime in my handInto the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old manI’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through townHe’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look aroundThis is your hometown, this is your hometownThis is your hometown, this is your hometown.In `65 tension was running high at my high schoolThere was a lot of fights between the black and whiteThere was nothing you could doTwo cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gunWords were passed in a shotgun blastTroubled times had come to my hometownMy hometown, my hometown, my hometown.Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant storesSeems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no moreThey’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracksForeman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back toYour hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting outPacking up our bags maybe heading southI’m thirty-five we got a boy of our own nowLast night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look aroundThis is your hometown

Back to today’s strip: Notice that the bathrobe / raincoat / overcoat / trench coat / duffle bag is still there. Okay, dear reader, so you’ve received fair warning . . . .

in 2008, the position was no prize after what had already hit the fan, whoever gets it in 2012 will have it worse. The costs of the gulf war hadn’t been paid, add a couple more decade log wars -without raising taxes to pay for it – ………… Add to that, Libya and the other Arab Spring countries that we(in the guise of the UN; will partially fight and pay for), you will see that it will not get any better. The only way is to charge the countries that we “helped” a tribute tax, say 1/2 of all oil pumped until they pay us off, then, just maybe, there could be some light at the end of the tunnel. The only “entitlement” that most agree is not right is what is called welfare. It is just a tiny drop in the ocean of other entitlements. These entitlements are not the whole problem, the war machine is. If we fought to win and hit them as hard as we should, all the countries would have handed over Bin Laden. The big stick is what is needed.

The powers that be want to make us into a third world country, with an army they can move around to protect their profit making concerns. The only “trickle down” is wet and smells.

DYLAN Am I old and forgetful. Which party owned all three houses when the Bush tax cuts for every American was extended.? Perhaps the majority of Congressmen (What party?) did not want to tell us our taxes went from 25% back to 28%. Sorry if you are a low life who deducts his way out of any taxes, but the majority of this country can use a 3% tax cut.

Duke’s too smart to drown “that fat pig in the tub.” Doesn’t matter to Duke whether or not any jury would ever convict him. Reason: the pig is pregnant with the “golden egg” that it could lay under the right conditions. .Duke is a consummate criminal. His prob: how can he steal the billions and billions of $US (quivalent) that belongs to the people (say it, “the slaves”) of Berserkistan, that Excellency stole from them over many years? He stole just as Khadaffy Duck stole his hundreds of billions from the people of Lybia. Where is the money “parked”? .Generally in Switzerland. But the Swiss have their own “greed is good” philosophy and they will have their own pound of flesh, thank you very much — mainly by charging negative interest rates. .Suppose you were a Dictator For Life (DFL) if some impoverished country. Suppose that over time you stole $100 billion from your people. Suppose you “invested” their/your $100 billion in Switzerland at a NEGATIVE interest rate, the yearly proceeds of which the Swiss bankers put into their own pockets and then re-invest in American AAA-rated Treasury Notes, of course, of course..But that’s their prob. Your prob is that you still You have, say, $70 billion left after the negative interest rates have taken their toll..Problem for the Excellency-Duke-Overkill alliance (forged in hell): How do they get that money out? How do they get it laundered without losing their “shirts”, so to speak? Then then how do they reinvest this new clean-laundered money it back into unnumbered Swiss accounts (at negative interest rates), such that any member of the evil alliance can draw out personally at any time any amount (with the fabled Swiss Guard in their ridiculous hats and cordons, wink-wink-winking away) they want personally to spend personally any way they want?.The French Riviera is crawling with these worms, with their hairy bloated bellies hanging out over their Speedo “bathing suits”, their "arm candy” (such as Anna Nicole Smith types) hanging and rubbing and smiling for the paparazzi, their $100-apiece martinis dribbling down their sun-wrinkled, age-wrinkled sides, their gambling at Monte Carlo (where they always lose, but don’t give a spit), their bullfights in Barcelona (NE corner of Spain), their private jet trips to Katmandu, to Aspin, to their private boxes at the Olympic games in Beijing, to the private lux-boxes overlooking the game at the Supebowl, to the Oscars in Hollywood, to the Heat v. Mavs world best-of-seven championship basketball games in Maimi and Dallas respectively. Oh, and they need to contribute their secret campaign contributions to George W. Bush while he was still in office, so that “Dick” Cheney won’t sic the IMF or Interpol or CIA on them . . . . The list goes on and on and on, forever and ever, world without end, amen. This is more complex than any of us has ever dreamed, Susan. Enjoy, enjoy as Trudeau brings it all to you on the proverbial “silver platter”. .Bottom line: No, Duke has no interest in drowning the fat pig in that tub! Jury or no jury. Duke is a consummate criminal, Susan. And he knows that pig might be just his ticket to his idea of heaven.

After 134 days, he’s not bluffing.

He’s like the Israelis — draining American taxpayers’ every last drop of blood.

Houseguests, like fish, can raise quite a stink after 134 days. Perhaps letting the Berzerkian exiles torch the place (with whatsisface in it, of course!) would purify the smell..And this time, there’s no Red Rascal to save his wrinkled-by-now behind…

it’s a comic strip, folks, Laugh at it. yeesh.

you do recall correctly. the guns of will sonnet aired on friday nights on ABC when iwas just a wee tad. WB and his grandson roamed the west looking for his son (and the grandson’s dad). the old man was the fastest gun in the west and, like paladin, righted wrongs and fought injustice everywhere they went. a very good series, as i recall, but i think it only lasted a couple of years at most.

Reid got no tax increases, Boehner got no credible spending cuts. Boehner prevented tax increases, Reid prevented credible tax cuts. Reid’s base is pretty much happy with him, because sharper tax cuts would have meant trimming the largesse he hands out to Democrat special interests who put him in office. Boehner enrages his base because the spending binge hasn’t been curtailed. Reid wins, hands down.

Pleeease…, AKHenderson, I’m a Canadian and I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about. Could you (or somebody else, if they want to) enlighten me? Start slow – I don’t even know who these people are (Boehner, Reid, etc.).

OK, now 134/30 = 4 months plus. Sounds longer to me this way.

I enjoy and appreciate DT3.14’s input.

Thanks, Martin and LWP. You guys make me feel like Vista Bill, the resident favorite.

I’m surprised no one’s figured out the comment section is like The Truman Show. There’s only one legit poster here, and all the rest of the comments are computer generated just to create an illusion of some vast community. It’s taken awhile but I’m starting to get suspicious about who the legit one is.

Guten Tag, Herr Vista Bill.

This may be the first time in my thirty-odd years of reading this strip that I’m rooting for Duke.